Thought I'd Share This

This photo leaves something to desire but I made this tag the other day with some of these fun new bird stamps from Tim Holtz.

This view is a little bit better.

The background is made with some inks and a Hero Arts background stamp as well as some painting.

I also added some of this fun fabric trim.

I've been giving myself some art time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings while the hubby is at dialysis. Poor guy.  I know he hates going, but I admit I am enjoying some evening time to myself.

Trying to find a little silver living in a bad situation.

Speaking of spending some alone time, this great article was linked on Maryann Moss's blog Dispatch From LA a few days back.

Is this you?

I really enjoyed reading it and will say I always look forward to some alone time. Independent is the word for me. Lucky for me the hubby understands that. I think he particularly likes that about me actually. Means I'm not bugging him all the time.

Ha-ha.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pausing

Another flower card today. This one was actually pretty simple but I love how it came out.  The sunset and silhouettes of the flowers. I used a slightly textured cardstock by American Crafts and black embossed flowers. Image is from Hero Arts. The textured cardstock kind of made the embossing a little bit irregular, but I like how it makes it a little bit more deilcate. The Hero Arts image is an older one but a great background stamp. I  used some SILKS paints to color the background. I painted using a wet brush so that gave me that light blush of color.

I like how that sounds. Blush of color.

Words are from Tim Holtz, Stamper's Anonymous. I think the pop of the butterfly is great.

The 2 little black butterflies are also from Hero Arts. An ancient mini-image set on peg stamps.

And how about some real garden color?

I love the flowers that bloom at this time of year. 

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.

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!

Bring on the Love

Been into hearts BIG TIME lately. Pulled out my box of hearts and love stamps and been using some dies and making some heart art.

Today, a few heart art cards.

As this one says,

Bring on the Love!

This card started with white card stock that I lightly dry brushed with pink ink. The half of heart is one of my gelli plate prints that I die cut with a Quickutz large heart die. Then I cut the heart in half and used one half here. The heart stamped images and the word are from Studio AE by Technique Tuesday.

And I frugal crafter never wastes anything, so here's the other half of the heart.

This card is similar, except I used a different Technique Tuesday stamp and I added this little cupid from the latest Tim Holtz stamp release...the little mini's that went on sale just before Christmas. I love how the gelli print design came out here-used a foam stamp to pick up the upper blue layer and reveal the bright pink underneath.

So I will admit I am not feeling the love this early morning though-back to work after the weekend- and it was suppose to be snowy-thought maybe a delay, a snow day, but the storm went out to sea so just some light flakes. Going to get colder too from what they are saying. Like really cold. BRRRRR. But this is the last full week of this quarter at school...only 5 more days with these kids and then I get new classes and we are half way through the school year.

WOWSA!

Thanks for visiting!

A Last Taste of Fall

Christmas will rule supreme in just a few days, and I know I've showed you a few holiday cards already, but today I want to show you this fall-ish card I made. (Or part of this card- it is a square card) I used this Caribbean blue card stock  and some blue and white striped paper.  Copic colored images are from Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous. Words are a saying from Dylusions/Stamper's Anonymous. And add to that a bit of Dylusions spray ink, and you have this card.

I like it.

So yawn, I'm tired after last night, but our Battle of the Classes went well school- but I ended up having a 15 hour day-YAWN!- and now it it is a wind down day. Got to  pick up Miss Katie at college tonight, and in several hours my long weekend begins.

Oh YES!

Have a super day.

A Day with Tim

Yesterday I took not one but TWO fantastic classes with Tim Holtz! Here's a bunch of snaps and stories!

Here he is teaching us in a class called  Heart and Soul which I took in the morning. He really is a fantastic teacher, using this screen and his computer, breaking all the steps down, having everything prepped and not requiring you to bring any tools at all. FUN. No FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Here's my project not quite finished but almost-

And finished

I must mention I was down in Massachusetts at my favorite local craft store Absolutely Everything. I've taken classes there with Tim before-at least twice, and I was thinking yesterday about the first time I took classes with him, maybe 6 or 7 years ago and how different they were then when he wasn't quite the rock star he is today.

I learned tons about faux metal distressing.  LOVE it.

And though this is terrible snap of me...

Here we are- me, my friend Ina who came up from North Carolina for a couple of classes, and of course, the master of the ceremony, Tim.

In the afternoon we did a grungeboard quilting class called

Patchwork Pandemonium.

I loved all the techniques we learned here!

I am still not finished embellishing this quilt, but I was fried by this time. The first class was from 9-12- and since it is a little over an hour away I was up by 6 and on the road by 7:30 a.m. This patchwork class started at 2:30 and went until 7:30. After awhile there is no more creative juice left. Driving home after that seemed to take 4 hours instead of a little over 1 hour I was so wiped out. I got home just around 9 p.m.

Long was a wonderfully exhausting day!!!!!!

I wish I thought to photograph my hands which were covered in ink, stain, paint, etc. Even today they are still off colored, but not as bad as last night.

Not that I care!!!!!!!

It was great to see my friend Ina yesterday too. 

Not that I am loving me, here on the right in this snap shot. But at least I don't look 200 pounds with my chin pushed down and in like in the other photo.

Anyhow, it was a great day and now I am inspired to go play.

Amazing how classes can get you to a new place even when you didn't feel stuck in a rut.

I really must remember to take more of them.

Anyhow, hope your Saturday was even half as good as mine, because if it was half as good it would be great!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!