Hopefully, this morning, you were among the *lucky* who received a copy of the latest PaperWhimsy Bits ‘n Bobs.  Nancy Maxwell James and Rande Hanson have been hard at play at their art table and computer, respectively, cooking up some wonderfully inspired artwork to jumpstart our week in a most beautiful way.

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Check out the Inspire blog for this week’s projects and tutorials presented by Nancy  and Rande.

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From Nancy you’ll find inspiration in her:

Whimsical Fabric Brooch and Tutorial

Fabric Bunting

Pink Godey Cards

You can catch all of Nancy’s Inspire projects and tutorials by clicking HERE.

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And from Rande you’ll be inspired by her:

New Whimsical Digital Hybrid Images

Duplicating Layers in Photoshop Elements Tutorial

You can catch all of Rande’s wonderful art and excellent tutorials by clicking HERE.

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And… all the wonderful products that inspired Nancy and Rande this week can inspire you, as well, putting inspiration at your fingertips and pennies back in your pockets.  All products in the new Inspire! Bits category are on sale – 20% off, and many of them are brand spankin’ new to the shoppe.

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Enjoy life, create art!

A little freebie!

Draw and I went on a photo shoot last weekend to a neat little town a few miles up the road from us, Noblesville.  I like this little town because… well, one, Draw and I got married there and two, they have some great alleys loaded with photo ops.  Neat things like peeling paint, rusty doors, broken windows.  My kind of town.

While we were lurking through one of the alleyways, this little nondescript door jumped out at me.  What a canvas!  I got to thinking, man, I’d love to see what wonderful whimsical things could be done with this door and from that thought came this one: I propose we have a door party and make a bit of a contest out of it to boot.

Grab the little freebie sheet (click on the door above), print it off, work your magic and then share your work by posting a link of your artwork on your blog to this post.  If you don’t have a blog or website, then email a scan of your creation to me: hello (at) paperwhimsy (dot) com.

I’ll select my favorite doors and feature them in my mid-October issue of the newsletter.  AND everyone who participates in this little door party will be eligible to win an a-door-able prize: a $25 gift certificate to the PaperWhimsy shoppe.  The gift certificate will be awarded by random drawing.

Deadline for the contest is October 15.

PS it’s a fairy large file and will take several seconds to download.

I’m sitting here in the conservatory waiting for my coffee.  Another lovely morning which always opens up a multitude of opportunities for happy wanderers.  I think maybe it’s going to be Canterbury today (not been there) but who knows how the wind will blow.  We are foot loose and fancy free.

Yesterday it was Sissinghurst.  Last time we visited it was bright sun and gobs of garden gawkers and this year’s visit was much the same.  Somehow I managed to snap 150 photos around all the people which is quite a feat.

Not to mention any names to protect the guilty, but a certain someone got a parking ticket, yesterday.  Now, that certainly has the potential of taking the wind out of one’s sails after a very fine day of flower gawking but we managed to turn it right around.  With a big thanks to the 50% off sale on parking tickets until the end of the month and the tally of sundry minor and undetected traffic violations over the course of two days our certain someone actually ended the day in the black.  His one last hurrah before rehabilitating was taking out the trash a day early.  He’s such a bad boy.

I managed to squeeze in a few shoe shots – I liked this one in particular.  When I first pulled the little blue shoes out of my camera bag a grandma and grandpa stopped and watched with bemused smiles as this strange lady took photos of doll shoes on the statuary.  As if the millions of flowers in this world-renowned garden didn’t provide enough photo ops?  After I snapped a few photos they stayed a few minutes to chat with me about doll shoes and dolls in general.  It was a very sweet exchange.  I can’t imagine this happening anywhere else but in England.

In just a few days we’re off to England.  This year, along with my usual garden/graveyard/doors/windows shots keep your eyes peeled for some antique shoes shots (most probably combined with gardens, graveyards, doors and windows).   A rather nifty idea, I think, given the fact that I really like shoes and I especially like little shoes and these are little antique shoes which is even better.

Who knows what tales will unfold with this adventure!

I wish all my faithful blog readers a very happy and uplifting Holidays and may your 2009 be filled with all things beautiful and whimsical.

From my heart to your art a small gift.  (’tis a mighty file but hopefully, well worth the wait).

Just thought I’d pop in and report that I am almost over my election day miff and back in my studio creating some new digital goodies to keep me inspired and hopefully you, as well.

A few peeks at what’s been cooking…

Pretty little faces which are actually composites of several pretty little faces.  The children of Frankenwhimsystein.  I don’t think these qualify as Steampunk – no watch parts or nuts and bolts holding them together.  Digging the purple all of a sudden.  You’ll be seeing this background in a digi sheet somewhere down the line.

A little closeup for you.  They look as though they’re in need of an adventure.  Interested in creating one for them?  You can find these sweet little faces HERE.

And some Christmas papers, below, with special Christmas pricing.  These Christmas bits will be retired on Dec 31st.  Nifty, these, you can just print and print and print to your heart’s content – these are in digi format (pdf).

Again with the purple.  I’m not anti-traditional Christmas colors but these are so much more fun, don’t you think?  You can see this sheet HERE.

Back to the creation station.  Cheers!