Winter

New art today! Now that my table is finally cleaned off (after a couple weeks of cleaning) I sat down the other night and made a bunch of journal pages.  Boy did that feel GOOD!

 Its been chilly and raw here lately. Not really quite cold enough for snow (which is OK with me), but it is December so snow could arrive anytime. 

My journal page today is an ode to the oncoming winter and the subtle beauty of this season.

I am linking my page to today to the December challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month's hostess is Valerie and the theme is collage (with some words on the page).
So this page began as a blue and purple Gelli print. That's what inspired me-the cool colors of winter. I first stamped the music, and then I painted the tree and added some Black Stabilo mark all pencil marks. I also used some cool blues to stamp all the snowflakes-using TH distress snowflake set. The crow was stamped and then painted, and I stamped the postage and cut it out to add to the page, along with stamping the postmarks and the quote. The crow, music and quote are all from paper Artsy and the postage is from an ancient set which I think is by Inkadinkado.
Here's some close ups.

And my photo today is this cool reflection of my Christmas tree which I took Sunday night after we put it up. If only I had remembered to remove the nightlight from under the window. We have it there because it is suppose to help with the mice-which have been horrible this winter. Its like they know we don't have the cat any longer (I won't go there-that story is too sad and I will cry even though we lost him in July). But someone else said it is just a bad fall for mice.

That's all for me on this Thursday morning. Thanks for dropping by.

Sunny and COLD today

Today is bright and blue skied but like 10 degrees right now.  The house is cozy with the woodstove going. Tonight we have a hockey game and its going to be COLD walking to and from the car. BRRR.

So yesterday was a great day off...sun out by 2 p.m., wind kicked up, shovelled so got some fresh air. Made a bunch of cards...read a lot of my book...watched a bunch of Rick Steves travel videos from a set I purchased 2-3 years ago (I surprisingly watch those a lot...it was worth the $40 I spent on them), made a bunch of cards...and

The owl was back...pretty early in the day too...GORGEOUS!

Its SOOOOO cool how they can turn their heads.

So yesterday's card had a Valentine's theme. I was using my Big Kick...making Fleur de Lis, heart and Cupid punches. I also was using the empty cutout paper as stenciles and trimming them down and using them as "ring" images. Very cool what you can do. Here's a couple of snaps for one of the cards I made that kind of demonstrates what I was just saying.

So I used the left-over paper from punching out a Quick-Cutz cupid to stencil the Cupid in black on the white background. Then I glued on the fleur de lis and after that decided I wanted to stamp on it.  It was have been easy if I hadn't glued it down, but what I did was like the left over edging from this die-cut and put it down as a mask, then stamped it several times with the Tim Holtz love definition. Then I added the trim (an old piece from EK Success). The heart was made by taking the edge of a die cut scrap and cutting around it to make a think rim. Had I had a wider heart heart I could have used that too...but I don't, so I just trimmed this down  and then glued the rim down on some 7Gypsies Lille paper (which I bought very recently at my favorite craft store). I glued the whole thing down, glued the gold leaf, glued the Prima felt flower and added the word kisses which is a single little word stamp. Not sure who made it...it was in my BOX of assorted clear stamps I got from the Frantic Stamper in their box sale back in November. Its a great stamp for Valentine's Day...got a  BUNCH of love type of stamps in that box.

Here's a bit more of a close up. 

Enjoy your day!



A couple of more art pieces

A couple more pages from my winter altered board book. I put up the blizzard page twice because I think the second photo shows the white glitter just swirling everywhere better than the first first...and in a blizzard the wind is blowing and snow is swirling like crazy. I love on the bone chilling page-I stamped a snowflake so many times and with different amounts of blue ink on the stamp to make the textured looking background.

Have a great day!

Some New Art!!!!

Its been a bit but today you get some new art!!!! Yahoo- its exciting.

These are 2 views from a board book I am making with a winter theme. It is far from being done, butI am done with these 2 pages. Anyhow, I painted the background with silver paint (hence the glare) and then inked it with black memories ink. Did that since I had a full moon and wanted it to be bright like a night of a full moon reflecting off the snow. I'm not sure who made the big full moon stamp but its one of my favorite and most used stamps. I colored it with some mango Memories ink. The trees are Tim Holtz with my new Sizzix, the snow is white paint and while it was wet I rubbed some white Pearl Ex into it. The coyote is CHF as is the snowman. I stamped a Penny Black music score underneath the sticker words and then took some Staz On cleaner to mush up the edges of the image. I love how this does look like a dark full moon night...oh yeah, I added some of those little glitter circle stickers...maybe by Stampendous...do you know the ones I mean? They have a glittering inside and a gold or silver rim...well I put those down to look like either stars or a few lone snowflakes. And I put silvery Stickles on the trees, to make the snow look fresher and still on the branches. I love it!

Cold Windy Morning

Another vacation morning-very glad since the wind is LOUD and WHIPPING this morning and though its 16 degrees F out, its probably much colder with the wind. But the sun is shining and I don't need to go out...works for me.

So I had read a chapter or 2 of this book before the holidays, and I've been devoring it since Sunday...I LOVE this book and now want to get some more of Ms Zimmermann's other knitting books. I love older retro style knitting, and I love how this book discusses knitting besides having patterns in the book. Plus it throws in a little bit of life too.

 And from yesterday, a few more pictures. These show the snow blowing around in the wind in my backyard...

It was a blizzard they say on the tv.And here's MOI outside shoveling later in the day yesterday...still in my new Old Navy pj bottoms (but boy that fleece is WARM). I did manage to get my house picked up and Vaccumed too and started a bit in the studio-that's today's project I think...

 So here is my latest knitting project which I am buzzing along with-its a great in the car project and while watching movies-which I've seen 4 in the last 2 days-we watched the A Team last night and I liked it, one of the better tv show remakes into a movie. Anyhow, this is a basketweave scarf...very interested in trying texture knitting finally at this point in my life, always been a intra-tarsia color gal.

So anyhow, the day is rather open and I like this, my mouse here on the computer is frustrating me major big time...grrr...but anyhow, take a BIG breath Erika and relax before your whole day is flushed down the tubes...

Enjoy, stay warm, and most importantly, don't let something SMALL make your whole day a BIG mess.

Blizzard

Hope everyone had a FANTASTIC holiday weekend or if it wasn't a holiday for you, a fantastic weekend. We did...traveled to my Mom's on the 24th for some family get together time, hung home on Christmas and did presents and relaxed and yesterday we went to my husband's family's get together at his sister's over near Portland, Maine. Was a great time had by all, lots of laughs, lots of joy and holiday cheer. Watched tons of movies over the weekend too...Eclipse, 4 Christmases, Inception...in fact just watching that now and trying to pull it all together...

So we've been hit by the Holiday Blizzard of 2010 (as the media is calling it). Started last evening on our way home from Maine...and its been blowing and snowing....a GREAT morning to sleep in, so we all did until 10:30...needed that. Later I need to do some cleaning up...there's a pile of boxes in my livingroom still from Christmas...and it is time to start cleaning the studio a bit...or A LOT. Beautiful thing about today is no place to go and no need to rush...sit in my pjs all day if need be...LOVE IT! right now when I'm still wiped out from the holiday and pre-holiday business...now I've got a week to relax and recharge...THAT IS WHAT I PLAN TO DO!

So photos are just quick snaps outside my windows this morning of the snow going on...our first BIG snow of the winter.

Enjoy and stay warm and dry, where ever you are.

Old Man Winter Arrives

Today winter arrives. Its windy and a VERY light snow is blowing around...they say only a dusting...and we kind of got that last night...nothing major...but Dave had an icky drive home as I guess it was slick. But so many places have SO much snow compared to us...even Cape Cod. Will it be a long cold one? Will it be short and sweet? Will we get much snow? Living in New Hampshire one never knows the answer to that question until after its over.

This card  welcomes the COLD with this great little Stampotique girl on a punched blue circle, my doodle snowflakes drawn in and the sentiment stamped. Plain simple but complete. I love this little girl. The stamp is named cold...apppropriate I think.

Good morning

This is not the kind of weather we are having right now...its a chilly morning but sunny and not horrible for mid-November. I love these Animal Spirit stamps...I ordered a few more that are lfet from the Stampin Treasures closing sale now that stamps are marked down 33%- there's a few more I'd like but they were sold out...but that's ok. This one is the cool polar bear...filled with arctic animals.  Takes awhile to color these but if you love to color...and the Copics give them a great look. To make this card I stamped white snowflakes and added some torn white paper for snow at the bottom. I darkened the horizon with navy blue ink and then after I added the bear I added some goldish glitter. The words I think are Amuse...old stamps. The Brr is a stamp by itself and the winter comes from one that says Happy Winter and I cut off the happy.

So yesterday was a great Saturday...so nice out I even opened a few windows for a bit. (Yes, in the low 60's which felt so warm...but since its November and the shadows fall so early the open windows only lasted a few hours). I raked about a million oak  leaves out of my backyard, and then Dave took the lawn mower over the few I missed...at one point I had a wall about 2 1/2 feet tall about 15 feet long of leaves before they got raked into the woods. I made a stack of Christmas cards...need to photograph them...and last night we all went to the UNH/UMASS hockey game. Was a great game...you can't beat Hockey East for GREAT hockey...though  have to admit it was strange to root for UNH since they are Maine's #1 rival and since I went to college at Maine I am a HUGE Maine fan. But I did say I enjoyed it a lot. Took some getting used to rooting for my rival team but then I kind of fell into the swing of it...I did got to UNH for grad school so its not like I have no connection- and I do pay Katie's tuition to go there...anyhow...was a lot of fun. Today, want a mellow Sunday with some art and maybe a walk...want to end this weekend feeling mellow and relaxed before another week of adventure begins (and seems I'm having all kind of adventures lately, aren't I?)

Happy New Week!