Cardology

I had an arty day on Saturday. Oh what fun it was!

I really want to be able to have an arty most every day.

 Too bad there's a thing called work, huh?

So I started my day by water coloring some backgrounds. I made a bunch, and I made a bunch of cards too. I needed a  card to send to someone I haven't heard from in literally years, and since I was going to make one, I might as well make a bunch. Not all the same, but using the same techniques. Starting with water coloring. 

And then embossing over the background.

Images I used here are from Chocolate Baroque.

The butterfly is painted with Dylusions Spray Inks in a water brush.

I love putting very bright colored images on white. It makes them really pop.

Black has the same effect which is why I used a black Sharpie to outline the block.

Popping is a great thing.

Don't you think?

So we're starting another work week. 

Hope its not as cold as last week. Hope there's no snow either. Or ice.

In fact I hope its sunny and warm and just like spring.

I wish!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Travel Journal

We're off on our family vacation at the end of next week. I can't wait. This year we are flying out to Seattle, Washington and then spending 10 days doing some road tripping and exploring.

I spent yesterday inside with the AC running because it was pretty hot outside. I put together my travel journal for the trip. I had started the cover- painted it, and then I rubbed some brown ink over it to get rid  of a bit of the brightness and give it more of an older distressed look.
I hand painted the picture in the middle of the mountain. Not sure Mount Rainier or Mount Hood or any of the mountains we will see will look like my mountain, but it does look abstractly like Mount Shasta in Northern California- which is part of the same Cascade Mountain chain. So maybe. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get all the mountain details exact, but I still am happy with the way it works on the cover. For the forest around the mountain I just brushstroked lines of green in 3 different shades-that part kind of works. All the rest of the cover is stickers I scavenged from my stash. I used to be a big scrapbooker. I actually like to scrapbook-my pages always look more journaly than the typical scrapbook page. I just haven't done as much scrapping as when my daughter was little because I've discovered how much I LOVE to play with paints, stencils and stamps.

Here is my inside cover.  I used the same green and blue paint to cover all of the cardboard pages within the book. This is a Maya Road book I picked up with a 4 ring inner binder to hold pages. It came with a lot of these bulky pages, which I like, but didn't want to use throughout the whole journal.  I used one at each end and then added one in the middle and made my own pages for the inside. Some of my inner pages are just cut pieces of paper, and some are pages I had (also from scrapbooking) that just needed some slight fixing. I also added some envelopes for pages and even a small flat paper bag I had. When I make a journal like this I often hit my stash a lot. You can see that here also. I love the saying above the word July. I recently picked up this set of travel stamps from Technique Tuesday and I think this is my favorite one in the set.

While cleaning out my classroom at the end of the year I came across a bunch of old slides that a retired teacher had had and his replacement had decided to throw away. I grabbed a bunch, not that I can use them in my classroom but figured they would make great embellishments on pages. That's where this little piece of film came from that I used on this page.

An October Afternoon page I had in my stash that I sprayed with ink, added the star, stickers and little cardboard dots (also from my stash).

Not the clearest photo, but you can see some of slides I brought home from work. Thought I would put them to use here.

A couple more fixed over pages for the journal. I have a lot of blank pages in this book and these half done pages too. I need to be able to actually keep the trip journal once we are there!  I will fill in and add things while we travel and then finish up the book once I am home. I bring my supplies- pens, Sharpies, a glue-stick, double side tape roll, scissors and a hole punch, in a little metal lunch box that goes right into my suitcase. It is amazing how little you can actually work with and how many periphery items you manage to accumulate at home when you don't need to keep it to a minimum.

One last page to show you. (Sorry this has been a long post today!) I know we will make it to at least 1 air and space museum in our travels, because my husband is really into that kind of thing. There are 2 he is talking about visiting, so maybe I will need more than this page. I just used some paper from my stash and these embellishments from my stash. Most pages I can't start to fix up since I am never exactly sure what it is we will end up doing.

Ok, time to take a breath and give my fingers a rest.

Thanks for stopping by.

Another Steampunk Card

Another steampunk style card to go with the ones I showed you on Tuesday.

I'd actually started this card last summer, but never finished it.

Until this week that is.

So the background is made from lots of sprays and some background stamping. Then I made these stems and used flowers from this Chocolate Baroque set called Punky Flowers.

This is a great flower set.

Planning on playing with it some more since I am feelign rather steampunky lately.

So we've made it to Thursday.Always tough first week back after a vacation but in another way-

its good to be back into the routine.

They say creative people are more productive if they have a routine and a regular job, and that is so true for me.

Just sometimes wish the job was less of my time and the creative play part was more.

Its that grass is greener syndrome.

And we are almost back to the weekend.

Any big plans?

I have a hockey game and am visiting a friend, so

its gonna be a busy one for me.

Doesn't look like I'll get a lot of art time-

if only my less job more play was true!

Stop by again soon.

Rockin' and Jammin'

Yesterday it snowed and snowed and then snowed some more.

Glad we didn't have school and I didn't have to get up and watch for cancellations-since we would have had the day off definitely, and then have to make a day up in June. Since I'm still on vacation that is. Think we're about the only school district in the state that has 2 full weeks off.

Instead I could sleep in and then hang home and play- something a snow day gives you permission to do.

I spent lots of time rockin' and jammin' to some oldies while I worked on my holiday journal.

Styx, Phish, The B-52's, Elton John, Emerson Lake and Palmer- yup,

 lot of oldies.

Had a blast!!!

And I figured I had to do something productive so I made pizza dough for supper.

YUM.

Then Katie and I watched some old X-File episodes from season 1. I bought a complete episode/movie DVD set from Amazon deals before Christmas, gave them to the hubby and myself...and he wasn't impressed but I wanted to see them. So a gift to myself.

Remember the X Files?

We started at the pilot and worked our way through a few episodes. I must say its one of my favorite old series. The 9 seasons and 2 movies in the set this should keep me busy around Sunday night's Downton Abbey right up until March when Game of Thrones starts back up again.

So instead of  me going on and on, want to see a few pages from my journal?

Stenciled, journaling, October Afternoon Santa tag and December letters, a stamped word bubble (Hampton Arts) and some ancient Making Memories holiday word stickers.

Really hate my handwriting though- makes the page look so messy.

I've had a blast working on this project, but truthfully, I am ready to be done with my holiday journal and ready to move onto something new and fresh. Hoping I can finish this up in the next couple of days. I don't want to just fly through and throw pages together without any thought, but not sure I want to spend hours on one page. This always happens to me; you get into the holiday and there's less time, lots of photos, and I get behind on it.

Kept trying to think of something creative on my pages, and think I manage to make myself happy with them, but they are pretty basic. I also find the smaller format makes you go more simple, since there isn't enough page to hold tons of embellishments. I kept my backgrounds pretty plain too- mainly a factor of not wanting to spend tons of time on each page. Not sure I like them sooooo plain, now that I see them photographed, but in another way,  I also like the plain pages.

For the pocket page I cut some October Afternoon paper and then die cut some Paper Smooches hearts. Stamped images are from Technique Tuesday and wooden word bubbles from Studio Calico.

For the silly face me page I used a background I made from from a Gelli print and I added the rest of the hearts from the Paper Smooches die.

Final page for today is this awesome shot of my daughter.

I layered paper, punched the edges of the bottom sheet, added some Technique Tuesday stamped images and some little plastic snowflakes.

I find holiday journal tends to turn into a scrapbook just because at Christmas I take so many photos. But scrapbooking is so much fun, even in these small little page formats. I do miss using BIG photos though, something I love to use, but as I've said many times before, you got to shake it up sometimes.

So took my car in for an oil change and ended up getting a new water pump and timing belt- eeks. There goes my extra check this month. I hope its ready today so I can have it back for the weekend, rather than using a loaner till Monday.

But we shall see, eh?

That's it for me.

Thanks for visiting,

Christmas Inspirations

Been thinking a lot of holiday projects.

Actually starting making my holiday journal. Will show you one of these days what I am doing.

But I really want to make some holiday things and was looking through some previous projects for inspiration.

Here's 10 pieces that make me smile and

make me want to run upstairs for the studio to play!

So top card is all about the snowman (Sizzix die). I stamped the snowflakes and then used the same colored ink and a brush to make the background.

Love the black and white background here. Its a Tim Holtz stamp. Then some ribbon and a Darcy stamped, cut and colored poinsettia from a set I bought maybe 2 or 3 years ago. The wonderful card is from October Afternoon.

Love this journal page.  I think the tire tracks that I stamped are a blast.

Sometimes, at least to me, the simplest pages are the very best. Especially when the page came out in a good way.

Here's a journal page with a bunch of die cuts and some blocky letters. Also some Sparkly snowflake dots (Stickles.)

And another journal page. This time I used some Viva Gold (well silver-ha-ha) paste over  stencil and some modeling past through a stencil to make the snowflakes. I stenciled the reindeer by stamping the Tim Holtz/Sizzix leaping reindeer die and using the mask as a stencil.

A cute card. Stamped image is from Sheena Douglas. I die cut both of the arches and aded a die cut star and then some felt reindeer trim. I have a whole spool of the trim I picked up marked down someplace or another and it comes in handy to finish off project or cards.

Cover of last years holiday journal. Some lace, some stenciling, some die cuts (both ones I made and the sparkling glittery snowman one from K&C Co. that I picked up on markdown at Michael's). The stenciled words are from Red Lead- a cool holiday saying stencil.

Another card, this one a little bit classy. The candles are a die cut from Dee's Distinctive Dies.  I also die cut the rounded piece (Sizzix) and inner piece (Cheery Lynn). Over that I stamped in gold the saying. The green leaves and berries are a Sizzix embossing die. Then I sued some Stickles, Dylusions spray ink and Perfect pearl sprays.

Simple and fun! Stamped images are from Paper Smooches except the BRRRR word which is a very old stamp in my collection.

Ha-Ha-Ha! Love this a lot. I used the Darice birch tree embossing folder and inked it tourquoise to make the colored embossed background. The images are from paper Smooches except the words which are from tachnique Tuesday.

Another super fun card. This time I embossed the frame (Sizzix) right onto the card and then rubbed darked green and white ink over the card. I added the die cut snowflake (Cheery Lynn) and added Stickles to the bow to make it pop. Then I added the snowman, a sparklely die cut circle and the words (Technique Tuesday).

And lastly, this other bright card. Images are from paper Artsy, excpet the red dots on the card which are from Cornish Heritage Farms-one of the original backgrounder stamps.

 

Hope you got inspired to do some holiday play this weekend.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to bring out the Christmas bins-

I am bad- I have 3!

I need to clean out- but maybe I'll wait until after the holiday and unload some stamps that I've out grown or don't speak to me the same way any longer.

Do you have a 3 day weekend?

I do with nothing more planend than lunch with a friend on Monday.

I think that is the moste xciting thing-

a quiet long weekend.

Hopefully some art, some sleeping, some reading, a bit of cooking and maybe I'll even get a bit of my disasterous studio mess picked up a bit.

Starting to get dangerous in there.

 

I want to thank you for stopping by to visit and

have a great weekend too.

More Journal Pages

How about some more journal pages. 

And here's page a page featuring your lovely blog hostess-

Me!

This page is pretty simple and features a lot of stamping.
I wanted it to be simple,
and blue-
because even though it was a hot day-
I wanted to portray the keeping cool part.
Which was my plan.
And the little book snippet at the top,
since I read on the dock.

I love the big numbers-

do any of you remember Ma Vinci?

Maybe she's still selling stamps.

But these are her

giant number stamps I've had forever and I

LOVE them.

The blue streak is just a watercolor marker blurred with a wet brush.

Now on this page I played with the background.

And I love how it came out.

I started with 2 different background stamps, some blue embossing powders and then some spray inks.

A few die cut images laying on the mess on my work table 

and then I cut the heads off of 2 old photos, actually from a Shutterfly book I have that has some major print issues. But still, I felt horrible ripping and cutting up this book, even though Shutterfly replaced it with a good no print issues volume.

But I do love how the page came out.

And a journaling page-with a title or top that I LOVE.

Here's a close up-

I die cut the July and stars  and then used that as a stencil to spray this-which I then outlined with a fine line Sharpie. Then I added the 2 die cut flourishes, and the ka-boom shape die cut. I stamped the words (Technique Tuesday) and after cutting that out I added that in.

And then I made this page. I used a painted deli wrap (Thanks Julie Fei-Fan Balzar for that trick) and  I added this fun old homecoming queen photo from an old yearbook I bought a few weeks ago for $2. Some tape, some die cut stars, some tearings from an old book, punched out tape and then the holes I punched. See that queen- that's me with everyone waiting and needing something from me. That's where the banner saying comes from.

So more other projects this week include some home improvement!

Painted a bureau, planning and shopping to repaint my kitchen cabinets (how far that will get I am not sure), did some major cleaning in my basement laundry room. Came up with 3 other basement clean ups we desperately need- 1) get rid of my daughter's old toy chest that has been sitting there for years 2) get some shelves to organize all the bottles of things (beer, wine, water, etc.) and 3) get rid of the laundry room rug- it is disgusting and look for something new.

We're in the icky humid and rainy weather-

kind of a BIG downer.

But the weeds going crazy in my gardens just love it-

maybe one of these days I'll get out to weed.

AND-

I needed to go paint patterns on paper and I made my book for the SEWN class

I am taking with MaryAnn Moss

otherwise known as

Dispatch from LA!

FUN TIMES!!!!!
Will show you some other day!

BUT-

the good news is this is a more mellow week.

Feel like I have a chance to do a few things!

AND-

less than a week-

we are flying to Colorado!

Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by.

Gelli Prints

Last Saturday I told you (and showed you) my new Gelli plate. 

A new toy is always so much fun.

 http://fat-emma.blogspot.com/2013/03/new-toys.html  

I spent that afternoon making some fun new Gelli prints. Here's a few of the prints I made that day.

Then I used some of my Gelli prints and made some cards.

Here's one. The background is from a piece of the very top photo.

The pink flowers really make the gelli print colors pop more too.

I die cut part of a Gelli print with a Spellbinder's deckle edged die. Then I stamped and watercolor painted these cool flowers from Technique Tuesday. (They are stamped and added twice. The first time a flat set is glued down and then I embossed a second image, cut those out and added them at different heights to give the branch a more 3D realistic look.) Inside the center of the flowers I add some white and silver pen highlights and some clear Viva paint-pen.

I also cut apart some green Prima flowers-those basic ones they made ages ago-which I then used a leaves to really enhance the bouquet.

I embossed the thank you on the card-word by Flourishes Rubber Stamps, and then finally I added a few little Prima metal embellishments on the corners.

Hope you have something planned for today.

See you again soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

It is a day of love. I'll be honest, not a big Valentine's Day person. I love love. I love to use hearts, but I am thinking this is more of a greeting card campaign to sell things. Or florist or candy maker, but what ever, it is a day of LOVE.

This top photo is the finished card; the one below is the semi-finished card.

I started with a white card base. I stamped the word image (Technique Tuesday) and glues that down. Then I added the die cut hanging hearts, added some Viva paint pen on the hearts and then added the Stickles. I forgot to mention, I also sprayed the card with some red Dylusions. Then I added some little red ribbons on the die cuts.

Finally, I added the earth-a Postmodern stamped image which I colored and cut out and added. I also added one to the back so that when you open the card you don't get that big white circle with all the ink blobs that leaked through staring at you.

Looking at the 2 images side by side, I think added the Stickles and the earth really finished off the card.

Here's another card I made with this icky colored background. I drew the circles and added the pink paint and then doodled in the hearts.

Then I layered the paper tape and finally added this die cut from Tim Holtz.

I colored the wording red and then added some red sparkle embossing powder to finish off the card-make those words stand out.

And one more love themed card.

This one has a slightly different take- but still talks about love. The mittens and saying are from Unity's stamp of the week series. The design at the bottom of the card is from Technique Tuesday. But before anything else went on the card I embossed in silver glitter the snowflakes in the background using an older Hero Arts background image.

I also put some Viva paint pen on the mittens to make them pop up a big and look a little more real mitten fuzzy. Mittens should be warm and fuzzy I think.

I like the fact that this card does not have any hearts on it but is still full of love!

Since I have over loaded you with these cards, I will sign off.

Wishing you lots of love in any way, shape or form.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun Food

I couldn't resist showing you these 2 cards with a loving and food theme.

More fun cards for the 21 year old at college.

I used this light pink card stock and some plaid orange paper that I embossed and then colored with an orange ink pad for this cheery donut card..

Donuts and saying are all from Hero Arts.

I used some bright Viva paint pens and also some Ranger Dimensional Pearls to make the decorations on top of the donuts pop a bit.

My other card uses a stamp set from Unity Stamps.  At least the pizza and the saying are from them. The bottom heart border is from Technique Tuesday and the top little hearts are from Memory Box-this ancient Valentine's clear set I have which is such a super set.

Ha-ha-both of these cards use these fun puns and put a smile on my face.

I'm sure the 21 year old smiled too.

They don't have to be fancy- I am sure 21 year olds don't care for all the frills-which I don't really do either to tell you the truth.

So yesterday I nursed my head cold at home, which meant doing some me things to make me feel really good about me. Feeling good about yourself is one way to get your spirits up which in my mind gets your immune system up and helps you knock the old virus villains in the snoozle.

Which I believe it did. Mostly- still dragging this morning but just tired, not sick feeling too.

I did a few small not too energy sucking chores about the house and I played in the studio and read more of Gone Girl and I watched more of Downton Abbey- I have made it into Season 3 now.

Everyone needs a day like this.

And today it is back to the work world of teenagers and biology and co-workers and commuting, but I am ready and prepared. Even with the tiny bit of light snow we got...but wait till Friday. Sounds like we have a lot of snow coming in the afternoon.

That means an icky commute home.

GRRRR.

Anyhow-

It is also Wednesday, already.

How did that happen?

Lots of Hearts

A little crooked-but another card made using a Gelli print. Love the colors on this one-with the pink and green peeking through.  I used some red ink and stamped some Technique Tuesday and Tim Holtz images onto the print.

I used red so they images would melt into the image and not stand out too much. But I did add they saying (Hero Arts) in black so that would catch your eye.

The big heart in the center of the image is part of the gelli print. I also added a pink die cut of a heart too. It is all about love today.

Then I used a Quickutz, Lifestyle Crafts die to cut the entire gelli print and added it to a white card stock base. Finally I added a few red Viva paint pen dots.

These gelli plate prints make a great card background.

So if you read my blog now and again you'll know I am a big fan of my college Alma mater hockey team. Finally the black bears had a home ice win yesterday!!!!!! We've had a few ties, and a lot of losses!!! Yeah- and we've moved to 8th place in hockey east- hope we can turn around for the next few weeks before the season ends.

Have a great day and

stop by soon.

Love when you do that!

More Hearts for You!

Here's another card I made using one of my gelli prints. I have this fun foam heart stamp that I repeated several times on my painted gelli plate. Then when I cut the print for this card I centered on of the hearts.

I love the depth but simplicity of this card. All black inked stamps are from Technique Tuesday. 

The heart on the upper saying has some Viva red paint pen dots on it-just to give a bit of dimension.

Then I attached my mono-print to my card and outlined the print with a black Sharpie to finish it off.

New classes for me at school today. My whole day's schedule will be switched and it will take some adjusting but I am looking forward to new kids and new classes.  Always a bit anxious about what they will be like-but I have faith. Will let you know how they look later.

My sister-in-law goes in for some major surgery today- a bit experimental-she is having her sternum removed since it is full of cancer-she is only 49 and has been battling breast cancer for several years now.

Keep her in your prayers, will you?

Not much else today-

Thanks for visiting!

More Hearts a Blooming

I told you I was loving the hearts lately.

Here's another journal page.

No hearts here but it had a heart theme.

And heart colors too.

It started with painting the background pink and yellow-got orange blending too. I sprayed this page with Bubblegum pink Dylusions spray and got rid of the yellow since I can't say it did much for this page. Then I used red dry ink and a Crafter's Workshop stencil to make the little mini-circles. And then I took the large circle stencil from Dina Wakely and drew the big circles with a black Sharpie. I painted them white. The Dylusions bleed and gave them a slight pink color.

I made the flower by painting some watercolor paper yellow and then tracing the Crafter's Workshop Julie Fei-Fan Balzar stencil. I sprayed that with red which is why is has an orange tint. Aagin, the yellow wasn't right on this page. I used a Sharpie and a white pen to decorate each petal before I cut it out and attached it. I made the center with lots of strips of Tim Holtz paper tape and I used this fun Studio AE Technique Tuesday stamp to make the center of the flower.

If you're wondering what is under the flower- I tried tracing and then painting it on the page, but it didn't look right, so I decided to make one that popped off the page better.

The stem is another Technique Tuesday word stamp and I just free cut and colors the little leaves.

Think this is one of most favorite pages. It is bright, cheery, and I really happy with the flower.

Need that cheery since we are in the DEEP freeze here in New Hampshire. Warm colors, trying to warm me up while I keep putting bio-bricks on the wood stove. Slowly it is warming up, a couple of degrees a day, but still, feeling cold outside.

They say it will be in the 40's later this week though.

Today is a semi-exciting day, in a little way that is.

At 11:22 I will be half way through the school year! 

Time flies!!!

Stay warm-and do at least one thing that makes you happy today.

Back Tracking

I really like this card I made back over the holidays. I love the fact that it is not a very traditional color. I love the snowy stamped scene from Hero Arts-and the silvery sprayed deer. I die cut the deer and sprayed it her with Perfect Pearls Platinum.  Words are from Technique Tuesday.

I know Christmas has come and gone and we are well into a new year now, but I really like this card and I hadn't yet gotten to show it to you.

So while I am talking about the near past- yesterday I had the most fabulous 3 hours after work. I came home to an empty house-well the critters were around but no people. And even though I kept feeling like I should go make some art-I finally let myself not go up. Do you ever get like that? Feel as though you should do something but just not want to? Even something you really love to do? I tend to push myself sometimes even when I don't feel super creative. You know, you should make some art every day or most every day and once you get going it is a blast and the creativity just flows and it is all good.

Usually I just go up and it is all good but yesterday it was cloudy and Friday and I was just feeling like it was end of the week and I wasn't really wanting to force my head and hand to do anything.

Well instead I made some brownies-so much for eating healthy-and read my book while they baked, and washed my sheets...was feeling a bit domestic...but the house was quiet , and I did exactly what I really wanted to do. 

And it was MARVELOUS!

Said that word at school yesterday and the kids laughed at me.

Teenagers. They think you're nuts just for wanting to be a teacher.

So have any big plans for the day?

I am off to a hockey game this evening-probably go watch those Black Bears lose-again-I shouldn't say that-they are playing sooooooo much better than back in the fall. But it will be fun to go out-we do dinner first at a local micro-brew and have a beer or two and then hit the game. It is a fun thing to do with the hubby and his sister and her husband. Get to try some different places to eat too which I like to do. So I hope, I hope-GO MAINE! We need the win!

That's all for me right now.

Have a super fabulous day!

Gloomy?

Man, has it been gloomy this week. More clouds, rain, and the darkness. All our Monday snow has melted, and we're into rain. Rain. Rain, rain. Isn't it December and NOT April?

So I guess I need some cheery holiday art to make up for that.

A few more views of some pages in my holiday journal.

These go back to the first of the month when we went to get our tree. Gloomy that day too, but we had light snow which made it feel so much more appropriate to the holiday.

Katie's boyfriend Brian took this photo of us. Nice to get a good family photo for a switch. Usually we don't get one since I am taking the photos.

I really like how these flying reindeer came out. I stamped words on the page and then die cut the reindeer (Sizzix).

I also used washi tape, bits of left over lace, Technique Tuesday stamps.

I  got these Technique Tuesday tags with the days of the weeks on them as  a freebie with my last Studio AE stamps. I used one here, along with a tag I covered in tree paper (Martha Stewart) and an October Afternoon sticker.

It was a fun day decorating the house and putting up the tree as the snow fell outside.

I love deer die cuts.

I don't know why, but I have been favoring them lately.

So it is Thursday-

almost Friday-

almost the holiday-

almost my vacation.

Time has flown- which surprises me in a way since I thought the 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas would drag.

No way.

Not for me.

It will be Christmas before I can blink my eyes.

Have a great day and

I appreciate your stopping by.