Starting The New Year Right.

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"Precious Metals"

Our crafty mavens at the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center have started 2018 with a couple of cards that highlight the gleaming sheen of metal.

"Precious Metals" features metallic card stock in gold, silver and copper colors. The silver cardstock, in particular, looks like vintage pressed tin when it is embossed.
The tiniest bit of black card stock peeks out from under the embossed pieces to offer a bit of contrast to the creamy white base card layer.

These crafters love their "LoveBirds" card.

Our second card takes a look ahead to one of the many minor holidays that occur during the month of February. This love themed card comes just ahead of Valentine's Day on February 14th but the color scheme makes it a perfect choice for a wedding or anniversary card. The silhouetted love birds on a branch and the sentiment "Always and Forever" undeniably make this card one for lovers. Like the previous card, this one also features silver card stock with just a touch of gold and some sparkling rhinestones for accent. Not shown is the inside card liner which also has subtle silver and gold accents.

I made an large poster-sized version of this card in traditional Valentine's Day colors to use as part of the senior center decorations. Here they are, side by side, so you can see the size difference.

Also on the calendar for February are Mardi Gras on February 13th and Chinese New Year on February 16, not to mention President's Day on February 19. It's going to be a busy month.

Life is a creative process.

- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Another Year Over.

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Glittery Snowflake hanging ornaments

Oversized gift tag

In my last post, I was bemoaning the speed with which Thanksgiving was approaching. Well, now Hanukkah and Christmas have come and gone and New Year's Eve is upon us. Am I the only one who thinks this year went by with blinding speed? At the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center, they have a party at the drop of a hat so the holidays were just another reason to turn on the music and dance. In between the music and the revelry, we managed to find time to craft a thing or two.

Oversized gift tag

The group displays their reindeer cards.

We began the winter crafting with glittery snowflake hanging ornaments. These were hung around the center when completed. The snowflakes were followed by oversized gift tags the featured a three dimensional Christmas tree complete with rhinestone baubles and a glittery star on top. Christmas crafting wouldn't be complete without a Christmas card so we made one with a reindeer sporting beautiful curlicue antlers that were glittered to make them really stand out.

JoAnne Biswakarma, DSCC director,
livens up the party with confetti.

Curlicue Reindeer Christmas Cards

Once Christmas crafting was over, we focused on the new year, creating a hand held sign a festive Happy New Year on one side and glittery stars adorning the back. A New Years party, complete with music, dance and confetti, was held at the center during our craft class and the joyous soca rhythms were a happy distraction. Everyone danced a bit, sat down and made a hand sign, then got up and danced some more. Many thanks to JoAnne Biswakarma and the wacky sense of humor she brings to every Dorchester Senior event. She really livens up the party.

Happy New Year hand held signs

It's time to party!

Here's to another year over and a new one just begun. Happy 2018, everyone! See you again next year.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Is It Here Again? Already?

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It seems impossible to believe but next week is Thanksgiving. NEXT WEEK!! It feels as if I was just setting out seedlings and applying sunscreen last week. Time is truly moving faster and faster every year. Ugh, that means I'm getting older and older just as fast. Hmmph! On to happier thoughts.

At the senior center, we've been working on all sorts of Autumn themed projects for several weeks now. In my last post there was a picture of the beautiful floral pumpkin centerpieces my crafters created. We followed that up with a coordinating Thanksgiving sign that can be posted on a wall, a door or on an easel for display. At our last session, we took a short respite from the larger, more complicated projects to create a very simple card to celebrate the fall season but, to keep my class from being bored, I challenged them to decorate it in glitter and they did a wonderful job.

Our upcoming class will be the last session before the Thanksgiving holiday and I have created a cute little turkey decoration. It's rather small, measuring only 2.5 inches tall by approximately 4.25 inches wide, but what this little fellow lacks in stature, he makes up for in attitude. His body is a small pinecone. His head features an open beak with a nice wattle and wide eyes, but it's his tail that steals the show, made up of 28 individual paper feathers highlighted with contrasting ink. Even the back of his tail is fancy, adorned with a lacy half medallion. A full medallion is used as a stand for this fancy fellow.

Yes, Thanksgiving is here and you know what that means...Christmas is around the corner. Bring on the holiday crafting.



Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

It's Been a Long Row to Hoe.

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I haven't posted in a long time, not because I haven't had anything to post but, on the contrary, because I've had too much going on. Unfortunately, not all of it has been good. In the past six months there have been at least five funerals, three of which were family or friends close enough to be family. I kept up with my senior crafting class during that time to keep myself from dwelling on sad memories, knowing that the sadness would pass and life would go on.


I am happy to report that this time of reflection coincided with some of the best crafting projects we've ever done at the senior citizens center. The class has grown and I have a absolutely wonderful group of people to work with. Here are some of the creations we have made since my last entry.

There are many more photos on my Facebook page  as well as on my Pinterest board, Crafting with Senior Citizens. Why don't you check them out and make a comment or two? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Oh, The Things We've Done...

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I'm bewildered by the speed at which life is moving nowadays. Seems yesterday I was talking about the Lunar New Year. Now Valentine's Day has come and gone and President's Day is a day away. I'd better get moving before Christmas sneaks up on me again.

We've done a number of projects at the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center, some guided and others self-directed. I've been moving towards providing materials and some direction and having the members express their own creativity. This approach seems to be working quite well and the ladies are loving it.

I conducted a class in the art of masking to create a simple scene through the use of inks, cosmetic sponges and rubber stamps. I created a few samples of the scene using different color combinations from the limited palette we have to work with, then demonstrated how the scene was created. Then I tasked them with creating their scenes and, true to form, they came up with interpretations I never would have imagined. The scene was then used as a focal point in a minimalistic card.

For Valentine's Day, we did a project I call The Queen of Hearts. The ladies were told to decorate a foam crown to express love, then I set them loose on a table loaded down with stickers, glittered foam, self-stick rhinestones and all manner of bling. My seniors, magpies all, love all that shiny stuff and they had a ball decorating their crowns. They were then displayed on the center's walls as part of the Valentine's Day decorations.

There was also a swing card class, also known as the flip flop card, so named because it is cut in such a way that a central panel swings around upon opening the card to reveal what is on the back. You can be sure you won't find that at a Hallmark store.

Our latest project was the one we all enjoyed the most. I cut a memory wire bracelet apart to create individual rings that were used to make beaded key rings that can be worn on the wrist like a bracelet. After years of collecting beads, I had literally thousand of beads at my disposal, at least half of which I placed on the table for them to use. The sight of all those beads must have made their creative juices flow because they dove into the project like excited school children. They liked it enough to make two rings each, many of which were intended for grandchildren, nieces and nephews. This was one of the biggest classes to date, so much so that a couple of late comers had no place to sit at the table and had to walk away, sad to miss out on the fun. You can tell from the smiles on their faces that they really enjoyed themselves.

The best part of this class came at the end. After I took their picture, I announced that my birthday was coming up and I wanted a birthday hug from my "girls". Well, they gave a communal yell of approval and lined up as if I was a visiting rock star. Every one of them gave me the warmest, most sincere smiles, hugs and kisses as they filed by, one at a time. By the last embrace I was almost in tears, so full was I of gratitude and joy at being in the company of such wonderful people.

If I'm being honest with myself, I run this class as much for my enjoyment as for theirs. If I'm really being honest, I probably enjoy it more.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Christmas? Already?

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Where has the time gone? It seems Hallowe'en was just a few days ago and now Christmas is fast approaching. Well, we haven't been letting grass grow beneath our feet at the Dorchester Senior Center. We've been busy crafting! Just take a look at some of the things we've made in the past month.

We celebrated the beauty of autumn's colors with two different cards. One card featured a bare tree that was covered with tiny, multicolored leaves applied one at a time. The other was an easel card that featured detailed rubber stamped images of autumn leaves and a diagonal border of leaves across the front. The unique construction of this card allows it to stand up like a painting in an easel, hence the name. The ladies liked the easel card so much, I created another one, this time featuring a photo frame.

With the holidays right around the corner, it was time to start Christmas crafts. My crafters really liked the decorated gift bag they created some weeks back so I designed another one for them to make. We followed that with paper ornaments, reindeer gift tags and a Christmas card.

On top of all this crafting madness, I have been doing my annual holiday decorating thing for the senior center. Decorating for Christmas and Hanukkah takes a lot of time because there are a LOT of decorations and because it is a large room. I'll take pictures of the room when it is completed and post them for you to see.

In all of this, I haven't done a lick of holiday shopping or decorating for myself. Time's a wasting'. I'd better get cracking.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Moments to Live For

If you've been following me for any length of time, you know that I conduct a crafting class at #DorchesterSeniorCitizensCenter every Friday afternoon. 

At last Friday's crafting class , we were being serenaded by one of the members who happens to have a wonderful voice. I asked to sing a duet with him and we began a rendition of "Tonight" from West Side Story. A quiet woman sitting at his table, whom I have seen there many times but who rarely gives me more than a nod, came over to me, apologized for not being able to pronounce my name, and then launched into a story about her late husband. He was a military man, she said, and when he got leave time he would call her up and sing "Tonight" to her over the phone as a signal that he would be home to see her and their children that evening. As she recounted her tale, her eyes welled up even as her face smiled at the memory of the man she obviously loved dearly.

Moral of the story: You never now how profoundly the littlest thing you do can touch another person's heart.

#MomentsToLiveFor #GitanaTheCreativeDiva #DorchesterSeniorCitizensCenter #DSCC #BrooklynNY #ArtIsLife

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Crafty Antics

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I just looked at my calendar and realized that it's nearly the end of September. Where did the time go? Well, wherever it went, it left in a big hurry and I haven't posted any of the crafts projects I've done with the senior ladies at #DorchesterSeniorCitizensCenter on Friday afternoons.

We've done quite a few things; some cards but others not. I challenged the class by doing a small project...small in size that is. I had them decorate plain dominoes with nail art decals to which I affixed strong magnets with hot glue. Voila! Refrigerator magnets. These dominoes are not large and the decals are even smaller yet my ladies pulled off the project like champs.

Continuing on the theme of useful items, we created pretty gift bags with a decorated tag. The floral paper used is actually wallpaper border cut down to size. Coordinated accents on the bag and tag make this a beautiful way to present a small gift to someone special. We also made a magnetic shopping list complete with individual lined papers inside a decorated pocket for creating a list. This project was the first of our autumn-themed projects.

Of course I can't let a month go by without creating at least a card or two. One was a colorful card with an all occasion saying on the front. The card featured die cuts and flowers with a little bling in the center. The second card was our farewell to summer and nothing says summer like a flip flop sandal. This shaped card was created using a digital cutting file by My Scrap Chick. For details on this and other cutting files, visit the website here. It went together easily and the ladies were delighted with the results.

It is officially autumn now and future projects will carry the seasonal theme until there is a nip in the air signalling the approach of winter and the year-end holidays. Until it is time for snowflakes and mittens, autumn's leaves will rule the day.

I love the colors of the change of seasons, don't  you?


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva