Button Tree
Hi guys! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. The heat (OMG – it was sooooo humid and hot) broke on Sunday and we are enjoying beautiful, northerly breezes, low humidity and temps in the 80’s. Now this type of weather I enjoy! Saturday was horrible. I was the photographer at my friends’ wedding. I was once again reminded why I don’t do wedding photography. I’m still recovering, lo!
Yesterday, I finished an art journal spread which I will share over on the eP blog on Thursday and in my attempt to finish up some of those numerous started projects, finished another card using Sweet N Sassy’s Tree Background stamp. Instead of sequins, this one has button blooms:
Ah yes, patience! Speaking of patience, my nightmare with exposure to certain air borne stuff at a certain place continues. I’d like to say so much more on that subject, but silence is golden – at least for now. Patience – something I’m learning to embrace, regardless of how hard some days are.
Anyway, I’m keeping it short tonight, after dinner am going to have to tackle Photoshop and all those photos, plus I have to finish Emma’s photos still.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a wonderful Monday evening!!!!!
xoxoxo
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Sequin Tree
Hi folks,
I decided to make a couple more cards using Sweet N Sassy’s Tree Background stamp. It’s been one of “those” weeks, where the repetitive motion of stamping was what I apparently needed. (Still trying to get that muse going in my art journal or canvas). And since I still had the sequins out from my last project, decided to make this a sequin tree:
After gluing down the sequins and making sure the glue was dry, I added centers in each sequin with a cream pearl pen. Quick and easy.
It did take me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to grab the sequins. Until I decided to use tweezers.
Not a very fancy card, but I like the white space and the sequins add just the right amount of color, don’t you think?
Hope you guys are having a wonderful week.
xoxoxo
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Fabulous
Hello everyone! I just wanted to pop in to share a quick card I threw together this past weekend. I still have not welcomed back my muse. I still have no “oomph” to create probably because of all the crap going on. Stress – depression and more stress. Rollercoaster ride – and I, who loves rollercoasters, wishes this one would pull into it’s final loop and let me off! And to top it off, the weather is stinkin’ hot. With a barometric pressure reading of 80-90% which means that the 98° feels like 112°-118°.
As to my card, well it is a quick one. The image is from Bugaboo Stamps. Love those images because they are relatively quick to color! She’s colored with Copics and paired with a sentiment from a retired Verve Stamps set: Uplifting Phrases.
I’m seriously contemplating selling my Copics – I’ve got all of the colors, but haven’t decided just yet. Again, that “oomph” is just not there. The papers are old MME and the orange panel was embossed then die cut. The card size is 5”x7” because I have so many envelopes for this card size and am determined to use them up. Anyhoo, added some sequins on the top and that was all I could muster. My art journal was calling to me or so I thought…… if you’ve seen my muse, pretty please send it back to me!!!!!
xoxoxo
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My First Picasso
Good morning folks. Hope this Saturday morning finds you in good health. I am enjoying the mild weather although I think today the windows will be closing and the central air unit will be turned back on.
It’s my turn to post over on the eP blog where I share how this project came to be:
Enjoy your weekend gang!
A dash of this–a dash of that
As promised, even with my muse missing, I made myself go into my art room and slap some paint around. And by “slap”, I mean literally. Both projects are unfinished but I will refer to the many great mixed media artists that urge you to just start creating and not to worry about finishing something in one sitting.
My first canvas is just paints and fluid glazing medium. I used all kinds of paints but found that I got better “running” if I used more fluid paint, such as Distress Paints and Golden Fluid Acrylics. I did however use Adirondack and some left over Claudine Hellmuth paints (the small bottles). I absolutely love love love the effect.
Now let me show you the full view because the photo above is a close up. I don’t know what I did wrong on the right hand side and I swear it’s not the camera, but it turned out almost blurry. I seriously thought it was my hand or eyes and retook the photo several times but alas, it’s not that.
See what I mean. Not quite sure what I’m going to turn this into or what to draw on it. Sigh, suggestions people, suggestions? lol!
My second canvas started out with glazing medium and Golden’s Teal Fluid Acrylic because I had a lot left on my craft sheet. But then I decided to just do some color blocking/mark making:
Definitely used Dina Wakley’s heavy body paints for this. And as you can see it most definitely needs more work.
I wish I could say that getting messy with paint helped bring my muse back. It didn’t but I did finish a project for my eP blog post scheduled for Saturday. I honestly think my muse is just doing what I would love to do, pull the covers over my head and stay in bed~indefinitely. As I still can’t publicly talk about my nightmare, let me just say that it’s highs and lows and just when you think you’ve made it up, you’re back down in the valley. That type of mental play takes its toll, especially when it is a daily battle and more than once I’ve come home wishing I was an Ostrich 
. However, I will persevere, I am strong and more importantly I am in the right! So yeah – I got this! And my muse will return, of that I am sure!
Still around and kicking….. xoxoxo
Supplies used: Canvas #1:
Supplies used: Canvas #2:
Birthday Wishes
Hi friends,
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We rounded the weekend out with a pool party for Gracy’s K-Ball team. Lots of fun and the water was perfect. I’ll share a couple of photos I took of the team at the bottom of this post. First I wanted to share a super quick card I made for Gracy’s birthday last week.
My friend, Barb, had send me several stamped images of this cute little girl a couple of years ago. I came across my envelope of stamped images and decided to quickly color her with my Copics. I am surprised that I still remember how to color with these – it’s been a while since I’ve used them. For the sentiment I used an old Stampin’ Up! stamp which I believe is no longer active.
Super quick card, which for me is amazing. Now to some of those team shots:
Before I sign off, am desperately trying to get my art mojo back. Remember how I always say that art is my therapy? Well when one’s belief in justice is severely tested….. let’s just say that I haven’t done any art; no sketching, just this card and that’s because I had to (for Gracy’s BD party) and it flat ticks me off. My saga continues and although they may have won this battle, the war is far from over. And on that note, I think I’m going upstairs even if I just get paint on my fingers.
xoxoxo
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Note: I do not what the name of that cute little girl is or who the manufacturer is 
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Black Haired Mermaid
Hi Folks,
Just popping in to share how I finished up the second mermaid on a wooden artist panel board which was started back in March in my Mermaid class with Mindy Lacefield.
The background was very block-ish with bits of old journal papers and old book pages and gelli printed deli papers. I also made hand drawn marks with oil pastels on deli paper all which were glued down with gel medium.
Lots of scratches made into the wet paint too. I almost didn’t want to cover it up and wasn’t sure what I should draw on it. Honestly folks, my brain has been mush because of workman’s comp issues and OSHA stuff – another reason I haven’t posted on a regular basis. Yesterday was the absolute worst with the calls and information I received. Anyway, sorry about getting off the subject, I ended up going with a whimsical mermaid drawing her in with paint. Then I just added those awesome Sennelier Oil Pastels which I blended with my fingers. I used these mainly on the face, neck, chest and arms. I was going for a greenish tinge on her skin – you know for underwater skin 
. The hair was painted with black soot distress paint, as well as some brush strokes of Dina Wakley’s Night. I added some colored pencil which was blended with a stump.
For her lower body, I painted it with both Dina Wakley and Distress Paints in different hues of greens (mixing the paints), followed by Silks Acrylic Glazes. These were applied in two coats. Light green first – letting it dry – then followed by the darker green glaze. Once that was dry added swipes of the yellow with the brush. I did add dimension with both markers, gelatos and oil pastels.
The bra top was cut from gelli printed paper and basically got the same treatment as the tail (lower body).
I really love how adding colored pencil and blending it with a blending stump looks and did add some shading with this technique to the lower part of her body as well.
All things considering she turned out ok and I’m happy with her.
Thanks for stopping by. Oh hey, be sure to stop by The Sisterhood of Crafters for the new challenge. I didn’t play along this time …..way too much crap going on, if you know what I mean.
xoxoxo
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Quick, Simple and Plain old Fun
Sometimes it’s just fun to go back to some old techniques and just have fun, right? That’s the case for this fun tag.
Wrinkle-free distress technique and stamping – that’s it. I used a combination of Dylusions Ink Sprays, Distress Inks and Stains. The large darker spots of color was made by unscrewing the Dylusions spray top and flicking it across the tag. Super simple. I did swipe Mowed Lawn Distress Ink around the edges and added a green gingham ribbon scrap. I’ll be using this as a bookmark and because of the larger size, it’s perfect for the magazines.
Over the holiday weekend, I was actually very crafty. My daughter Rachelle saw this altered T-Shirt idea on Pinterest and decided to re-create it. My Son-In-Law Kyle spray painted it with regular Krylon spray paint (yes, regular spray paint). Once dry, Rachelle washed it and brought them over for me to cut. I was apprehensive since I’m not an expert seamstress. But after watching the You Tube video, it took less than five minutes and no sewing. And they turned out super cute. Emma and Rachelle posed with the shirts on. I am definitely going to make me one like that next year.
Then Thursday night I get a text from my SIL asking if I can help make a float banner for the girls’ softball team – 2014 Champions. Nothing like doing it last minute, but it did turn out great. Neighbor had a large cardboard box and Rachelle and Emma came over Friday morning to paint Emma’s plate. Of course I promptly put both to work painting some chipboard stars and Emma stayed to add the Stickles.
Doesn’t look like much yet! But it did look great on the float.
And guess what – they won 1st Place in Patriotic, woohoo. I was so excited!!!! Great job girls on becoming 2014 Champs!!!
xoxoxo
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July ePlay–Altered Bottles
Hello friends,
I finished my bottle project which took me several days. Mainly because of the drying time. I’ve altered bottles before and used Claudine Hellmuth’s paints to color the inside of my bottles. This time I actually used glass paint.
Last year, I picked up a “clearance bag” for $2 at Michaels. The bag which was a big plastic bag was tied so I really couldn’t tell exactly what was inside. For $2 I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Among other things, there were several bottles of Pebeo glass paints. I packed them away and decided to pull them out to color my bottles. Same technique as Claudine Hellmuth technique; pour the paint into the bottle – tip it upside down and roll the bottle around until the paint completely covers the inside. I then stored the bottles upside down on some wax paper to let the excess paint run out of the bottle which gave me some nice collage pieces.
And I noticed that the glass paint dries sort of dimensional and really shiny! Once most of the excess paint was out, I turned them right side up and let them dry some more.
The green bottle was an experiment, which didn’t quite work out. The red and orange are more transparent than the blue bottles – honestly I didn’t even look at the glass paint containers – just like regular paints, glass paint comes in opaque and transparent too.
Once they were as dry as they were going to get, I lightly sanded the rims to get rid of any excess dried paint. Then it was just a matter of playing with my gelli plate and digging through my die cut flower container. Wanna see? It’s a mess but it’s fun to dig through it:
I love Dina Wakley’s stamps – hell, love her style period – and decided to use her birdies. The gelli plate printed papers (mostly notebook paper and wax paper) were torn into strips and glued to the bottles with gel medium. For the flowers and leaves, I used Helmar’s Quick Dry Adhesive.
And here is a closer look at the other bottles. I’m thinking of making a 4th of July themed jar out of the blue ones, what do you think? Oh, a couple of the bottles are vintage and were picked up at an estate sale earlier this year and the other two – well, I’m sure you can guess. (spaghetti sauce jars)
You can see in the picture above that I need to sand the inside of the rim a little – way too much dried paint! Definitely go check out July’s ePlay Challenge for lots more inspiration and for all the rules. And wait til you see what Julia, who is this months challenge hostess, created! Jaw dropping gorgeous!!!! Hope you can play along!
That’s it for me today, tomorrow is Gracy’s birthday party and the kids’ annual 4th of July BBQ. Can’t believe that the little rascal will be 7 years old on Monday! Time flies!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a happy and safe holiday!
xoxoxo
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New Beginnings…..
Hi Folks! Well, we survived two days of intense weather. Anyone who lives in the mid-west, knew something was brewing the moment one stepped outside. OMG, the humidity was absolutely horrible. Sunday afternoon there was no breeze and although I stayed in the shadows while watching Gracy’s k-ball game, by the time I got home I was sick. Got too hot. Thankfully, after last nights storms, they are calling for less humidity and temperatures tonight in the upper 50’s. Yay!!!!!
I created my project today over several days using Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stencil and embossing paste and acrylic glazes, glitter and more.
Head over to the eclectic Paperie blog where I share a step by step and more pictures.
I’m off to do some more photo edits of Gracy’s K-Ball team pictures! Those girls were so much fun to photograph! I’ll share some as I get them done.
Until next time…….. thanks for stopping by and stay cool!
xoxo
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