Looking Back Before I Look Forward

Before I look forward, I need to look back, so here's some of my favorite art for 2011.

I love these because:


One of my first plays with embossed backgrounds and rosettes!

I love the delicacy and how it feels wintery-but with a sense of beauty.

Journal pages...love the stamped snowflake background and the layout.

These are just fun! The plane is my favorite!

I love the shiny bacl night sky which you would have with such a big winter moon. One of my first plays die cutting the trees and I love how they sparkle...and the white painted snow looks pretty real.

The richness of the crown, the copper trimming and the formal top. It just works together.

The tape fragments, the rosette, the gems and the way the latters are...

The layering and the way I colored white cardstock with some depth....

The layering and way the tag is plain at the top and printed at the bottom and the little map paper that breaks it up.

The lightly colored watercolor paper, the 3 trees, the way the words and stars and butterfly are arranged.

The depth to the bird and to the page and the colors.

The title, the background paper which I added to and the hawk sticker.

The background on the watercolor paper.

The paper layout around this BIG photo. I like the unfinished tabs on the edges.

The mix of colors and elements combined with this stamped image.

The watercolored stamped images with the embossed paper scrap.

The image and the die cut stamp. It is bright and springey.

The simpicity.

I love the busy background but how it works so well with the photo.

How the background is so white but the die cuts and stamped images are just enough.

The simplicity...but it is cute and that squirrel is a fantastic stamp.

How I took an old icky card and cut it up and made this a great card-fun but not silly.

The stamped image colored really well and I like the addition of die cuts. Plus, it has a simplicty.

Take a photo of nothing too exciting and with the simple stamped background and all my assorted pieces it all works so great!

A busy background but it works so well with the photo and the seagull sticker just clinches it.

Some scraps of paper and those blue swirls...the saying...simple but it works.

Some simple die cut shapes, a couple of stickers and a small stamped saying...pure simple pleasure and delicacy again.

Randomness and feels like the beach and the ocean.

I like the old station wagon and the surf boards. I love the colors here too.

I love the gears and the texture and the bronze Viva dots and the cracklely clock. One of my favorites.

Cover of my North Carolina travel journal made from a blank boardbook. I love the stamped background, the swirls look like shells on the blue of the sea.

I love the layering, the DOTS and the way this feels like  like summer blue.

I love this card too-the same stamp set from Artistic Outpost. I love the embossed Tim Holtz clocks.

The bright blue and the simplicity and fun.

The light simplicity of this page but all the elements that make it up...

The background-stamped and inked. And the color contrast between the stamped image and the background yet they work I think.

The chest corner is a bit busy, but this page photographs well and has depth- all from my little old hands. It is different and appropriate.

What I really like is the little banners on the top right which I die cut and made.

I love the background I made from stenciling with light colored inks.

The simplicity- the postcard, the stanciled starfish...a few stickers...

The stenciled background but this time with paints. The few embellishments too...

It doesn't show well here but the images were stamped and colored an acetate, and the random tape and sanded cardstock...

The sanded cardstock and the felt image and dimensional items.

The embossed witch (love her) and the bubblely goo coming out her caldron. The textured background paper too.

This card looks layers but the only layer is the girl. I love the stenciled spiders and the whole feel to this card.

Using a totally un- Halloween stamp to make the scroll for this card.

Punching out inchies from an old icky card and then the way this is assembled.

I great journal page-simple but says so much.

Stamped and stenciled background...the cool saying and using up some scrap pieces for embellishments.

Clean lines but I love the die cut word JOY from silver paper.

The bright orange and the blye, the little piece of sprayed paper on the left and the white sanddollar as contrast.

Can't see much of the photo but I love how I rediscovered these star stamps (prima) from my stash.

Contrasting background paper, the layout...just how it works.

The blue that I distressed paper and how I used lots of little scraps to decorate this page.

The stenciled background, how I added the stamp to the photo and used the paper scrap for my journalling.

Simple, love the white stars and the pink for Thanksgiving.

The white card...great heart stream

I love the background I made, the house is so much fun.

The background words and the circle tag...

Its is fun and the snow...

Simplicity and the real shells I used.

The painted stenciled backrgound and the doodle journaling.

I love the contrasting colors and the scribbles!!!!

I love the title to go with this photo...it says so much. Plus, my colors and doodling!

The background, the scraps I used to make this page...the colors all work!

Great holiday tag!

I love how I used this menu I printed out and the tag I chose and the way I made Santa having a word bubble...

The red pops!!!!!

Holiday-ish but slightly non-traditional.

I love the birch bark  created using an embossing folder on white paper.

The circles and the little scrap embellishments.

A little color and some black and white.

And finally, this is a recylced card I had made and didn't like. I covered the whole upper image with white Stickles and I love how it glistens just a bit.
So there you go...
2011 in art...
if you can even really do that ...