Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Snow Day!!!!!

Our first snow day of this winter-quite a nor'easter going on. They say maybe a foot around here and more at the coast. The snow is coming down quite hard and I REALLY enjoyed going back to bed and back to sleep this morning.
Lots to talk about today. First of all, I had this fantastic visitor to my backyard yesterday when I got home from work.
So COOL!! I believe its a barred owl...and it was there for the longest time (actually got dark and I couldn't see it anymore) but he's swivel his head around and look at me in the doorway...I love owls, they are fantastic birds, and to see one while its still fairly light is way way cool. He's (or she's) beautiful.
Second of all, there's a lot going on in the pre-CHA world this week. Not that I go to CHA, but Tim Holtz has been previewing some great Sizzix dies (now that I'm a die cutter owner its more exciting I think) on his blog and Studio 490 is showing off some new stamps on her blog and Hero Arts is having a blog hop. Wow. Keeps me tied to this computer for a bit. I've learned that the Sizzix site has Tuesday Teaser sales (is the best place to get dies I think) and yesterday they had several of the Tim Holtz dies that probably everyone but me owns...but I ordered a couple which should be fun when they arrive.
So with the snowstorm going on, thought it would be a good day to show you more of the winter book project I am working on.
Here's the cover. Don't think you can see the white stickles that look like snowdrifts on the white letters (of the word winter). The tree is a die cut, colored and then stickled...I stamped in white the words 'let it snow' along the base of the tree to look like snow...I textured the plastic from one of the die cut wrappers (as Tim Hotlz showed during his 12 tags of Christmas this year) for a cool effect....
My last worked on spread. (I have 1 more spread left in the board book). I painted the background with Viva Gold paint- in a shimmery white-which is hard to see here. On the left page I textured some white paper first-before the paint. The big star I die cut out of thick fabric interfacing and added lots of Prima gemstones to it...bordered the page with tissue tape and the left edge with a pre-bought lace paper. On the left I made a tag by texturing it, stamping it in ochre, stamping the saying and then taking white pigment ink and over stamping the whole page with pad. Then I added the lace tape and the ribbon and the Prima gemstone...outlined the edges in black marker...the tag on the page is from Making Memories and there's Prima's gemstone swirls and there's also a Hot Off the Press sticker that says beautiful. I really love this page, and you can see the enlargements right below.
 And then I also punched snowflakes for this page which I'd shown you a few days back,,,before I added the snowflakes (which I have reposted below this photo). I punched them out of lighter interfacing-but more the backing paper work rather than the interfacing...so I covered them with some more silver stickles to make them stand out.  I think the page needed the snowflakes to finish it off.
Anyhow....going to mix up some crepe batter for a late breakfast once the college girl rolls out of bed. I want to go play in the studio and just hang out today...take advantage of my day home!!!! Its a great way to break up the week, that's for sure!
Happy snow day (or snowless day-depending where you are).