Michelle Ward/GreenPepperPress Blog

  • On the trip back home to MN I was lucky to meet up with a new friend – Judy Neubert.  We met at the Mall of America with the intention of having coffee.  THAT was until I saw there was an Archiver’s there…didn’t take much coaxing to get Judy to spend our hour together shopping instead.  Got myself hoards of paper, the fave being this new Basic Gray and Creative Imaginations.

    Newpaper

    Big dent in the wallet later we had to say our goodbyes and she gifted me with a terrific piece that thrilled me beyond measure.  It’s a real work of heart……

    Judy2 

    It began with the tag above.  Got goosebumps?

    Judy3

    Then in the bag was this folded masterpiece.  I can’t begin to imagine how many hours and how much planning went into this…..my pictures hardly do it justice.  Every little detail was thought through…..many pockets to open, revealing many treasures found in the last photo.

    Judy4

    Here you can see a portion of the secret compartments opened.  Look at the cool imagery everywhere too.

    Judy5

    Fully open….more great images, even some of my older designs.  You KNOW I’m loving the colors too.  Have you ever seen anything like this?  I mean, it has three jillion openings.  Told ya, work of heart.

    Judy6

    And here is all the loot from inside.  Yep, she’s been in the shackles….has become a HIM fan herself.  Love THAT.  She is such a clever one…..took the pins and threaded wire through them to create genius danglies.  Judy – you’re a gem.  Was wonderful to meet you and I look forward to our workshop in October.  THANK YOU for this special gift.  You GET me.  I only wish I could have opened it all in your presence so you could see how touched and enthused I was.

    The SYNCHRONICITY:  the paper I was scarfing up WHILE SHOPPING WITH HER is the SAME PAPER she used here.  She never caved.  She never hinted that she had already seen the stuff, and had used THE VERY SAME PAPER in this gift.  Shown below:  back.

    Judy8

    Tomorrow:  Part Two.  Another case of SYNCHRONICITY.

  • On the trip back home to MN I was lucky to meet up with a new friend – Judy Neubert.  We met at the Mall of America with the intention of having coffee.  THAT was until I saw there was an Archiver’s there…didn’t take much coaxing to get Judy to spend our hour together shopping instead.  Got myself hoards of paper, the fave being this new Basic Gray and Creative Imaginations.

    Newpaper

    Big dent in the wallet later we had to say our goodbyes and she gifted me with a terrific piece that thrilled me beyond measure.  It’s a real work of heart……

    Judy2 

    It began with the tag above.  Got goosebumps?

    Judy3

    Then in the bag was this folded masterpiece.  I can’t begin to imagine how many hours and how much planning went into this…..my pictures hardly do it justice.  Every little detail was thought through…..many pockets to open, revealing many treasures found in the last photo.

    Judy4

    Here you can see a portion of the secret compartments opened.  Look at the cool imagery everywhere too.

    Judy5

    Fully open….more great images, even some of my older designs.  You KNOW I’m loving the colors too.  Have you ever seen anything like this?  I mean, it has three jillion openings.  Told ya, work of heart.

    Judy6

    And here is all the loot from inside.  Yep, she’s been in the shackles….has become a HIM fan herself.  Love THAT.  She is such a clever one…..took the pins and threaded wire through them to create genius danglies.  Judy – you’re a gem.  Was wonderful to meet you and I look forward to our workshop in October.  THANK YOU for this special gift.  You GET me.  I only wish I could have opened it all in your presence so you could see how touched and enthused I was.

    The SYNCHRONICITY:  the paper I was scarfing up WHILE SHOPPING WITH HER is the SAME PAPER she used here.  She never caved.  She never hinted that she had already seen the stuff, and had used THE VERY SAME PAPER in this gift.  Shown below:  back.

    Judy8

    Tomorrow:  Part Two.  Another case of SYNCHRONICITY.

  • Mkw777

    Are you watching?  Go HERE.  I wish it was being broadcast on tv like Band-Aid was…..Graham and Fallon almost went to the NY show.  We can see more from home….looking forward to DD and Spinal Tap in London.  More importantly, it’s really cool to see the outpouring of love for this earth.  Do your thing, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.

    (Some clips can be viewed on Bravo, and several stations will be broadcasting overviews.)

  • Mkw777

    Are you watching?  Go HERE.  I wish it was being broadcast on tv like Band-Aid was…..Graham and Fallon almost went to the NY show.  We can see more from home….looking forward to DD and Spinal Tap in London.  More importantly, it’s really cool to see the outpouring of love for this earth.  Do your thing, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.

    (Some clips can be viewed on Bravo, and several stations will be broadcasting overviews.)

  • Mward4thofjuly

    Since buying and lighting off fireworks is illegal in some states I won’t be telling you where we were or what we did but here’s some evidence, shhhhhh.  (This one was awesome…..so is the guy!)

    Mward4th2

    If you get a xmas card from my Mom, this is what it will look like.  My sister and her husband, my brother and his wife, their three kids and dog, my parents, and the Wards.

    Mward4th3

    More evidence of the action-packed vacation.  And below, Shannon and I for our every-time-we-are-at-the-lake-together-sisters-on-the-dock photo.  I should get all of them together in one album shouldn’t I?

    Mward4th4   

    Have a happy 4th! 

  • Mwtripping_2 

    TOMORROW:  1196.62 miles to my parents house.  Then another 225 to the cabin.  25th class reunion, and visits with family and friends.  Back in 2 weeks.  No computer connections, I’ll miss it here.  Be good.

    Mwclosednotice

  • Mwardpurestloveb_2 

    The latest Somerset Studio arrived today, and man….it is so handsome.  Just terrific.  I can show you the back of my piece in an article I wrote…..but you’ll have to get the issue to see the front.  It was such a rewarding piece to make.  What’s really cool is when you get your art back (after making it months ago) and you still love what you did.  Life can often move so fast that I forget about things I’ve made and sent off.  Good thing I make evidence journal pages…..I’ll have to dig those up to show you sometime.

    Since I’m plugging the magazine I will blog about this too::

    Artfulblogging

    Love that the Street Team is getting some more ink because it’s all about networking and creativity, and making an appointment with your journal once a month…..first mentioned in Somerset Life, and now Artful Blogging.  I appreciate the spotlight, truly, because it’s so cool that we are all widening our circle of artistic friends with the crusades.  Stampington is keeping stride with the times by inventing this new publication.  How cool is it going to be to learn about other artsy blogs?  You KNOW you’re interested in the blog world…..you’re HERE aren’t you?

    I have to say I can’t stop watching the video below.  Must have rewound it 2 or 3 dozen times.  So heartwarming.  Even if you’re not an opera lover you gotta appreciate this dude.  Music has that way of getting to you, doesn’t it?  I know I’m buying the album….I even friended him on MySpace 🙂

  • Got goosebumps?  Did Paul Potts win?  Click here…..and scroll up to the 2-1/2 minute mark.

    (From:  Britain’s Got Talent)

  • Mwabctype1

    Another fun activity….designing with parts of letters.  Go HERE then click on the grid, lower right.  The click and drag letter parts into arena.  Then click the other button and it will jumble up.  Cool!   This is what will happen…..you can hit it several times to get different variations.

    Mwabctype2

    You can get a poster from the originator, HERE….isn’t hers wicked?

    Abctype3

    Makes you want to make cool stuff with type, doesn’t it?

    Michellewardabccollage3

    Mwardquotekcobain

    LOVE typography.  Don’t even get me started on Ambigrams.  Did you read Angels and Demons?  The graphic below was found HERE, the right is flipped 180 degrees from the left.  Clever, isn’t it?

    Michelleambigram

  • Fathersday1 

    Fd

    No words of wisdom….just looking at these kids of ours and feeling blessed, and happy, and amazed they have grown into such cool kids.  From the moment we saw the blue mark on the pregnancy indicator our lives changed.  You became a dad, I became a mom, and we became a family.  Happy Father’s Day.  xo

    And for our fathers, John and Philip, we have wonderful things we could say about them but they don’t have computers, so they get cards instead of a blog post.