Journal Pages- Fresh Salt Air

Some more pages from my holiday journal. If you read this blog you might remember the hubby and I went down to the ocean one afternoon over our holiday vacation and enjoyed some fresh salty air. These are some of the photos I included in my album and the pages I built around them.

This top snapshot is the actual photo printed out-I cut around the photo paper, stamped this great coffee ring stain image (Postmodern Design) stamped the words. I like to add in plain photo pages-the photos left right on the print paper, they break up the book.

I was playing with my new macro lens and I took this of this cool geological survey marker.  I love the colors and the texture in this photo. I like the page too, but the shadow when I took this photo is Pretty Bad. I did manage to use this barb wire texture embossing plate on the left and I took some embossed heavy plastic packaging and then cut it into these cool little circles. I like how this piece is so clean and white...just a tad bit of staining to give it an old distressed look in the top corners using some very light green ink and a Crafter's Workshop template.

This page makes me smile. It's fun to do a montage- very commercial looking page-so magazine-ish. I combined a bunch of similar beach photos, some pieces of tan die cut paper (they were the insides of a window die I had used) and I stamped the little circle image (Autumn Leaves and Hero Arts) on the bottom corner.

Shell photo. That's what the beach is all about. Since I was a dark cloudy day I started by using a Crafter's Workshop template  and some black ink to stencil the dark clouds all over. And then I used some pink ink (to match the pink in the shell of the photo BUT in our lovely northern lack of light, you can't make out the pink. I used a die cut tag (Spellbinders) and wrote out the journalling, but used a Technique Tuesday stamp to stamp the Tuesday work. I added a few Viva paint pen dots on the edge of the tag and then I stamped the 27 with some Autumn Leaves clear number stamps.

Paint dabs and paint streaks, some 7Gypsies tape, a Hero Arts Christmas stamp saying stamped several times, my little berry photo, a Stamper's Anonymous little B stamp -it really says Beau Arts but you don't see that part since I covered it with a chipboard  ring which I painted with some Viva Gold creamy paint in Lava Red. Not sure I like this page-at least how it photographed.

So thanks for visiting and checking out my art.

Mosaic Card

Wednesday! Having Monday off makes the week FLY! This is the last week of second quarter, and then we're into the second half of the school year. Exams for my classes start Friday. Wow!

To make this card I started with pink cardstock and also a coordinating piece of pink reptile skin looking cardstock. (Same company made both but I didn't get them because they matched so well.) Then I had a page of stamped images image made with Oxford Impressions Casablanca stamps (stamped in bown ink) and also a Stampington Heart stamp stamped and colored in red. I used an inchie punch to punch the 4 squares from that masterboard page and attached them to the card. I stamped the passport/visa image on acetate and them glued it down on some thin paper. Once dry I peeled it off to give the back the mottled look that it has. I used Staz On ink on the acetate as it dries quickly and is the right kind of ink for a non-paper surface.

I stamped the words.

Then I glued down the tiny Prima flowers and added some Viva Paint Pen dots in cream (looks like pearls to me) in not only the center of each flower but in the mini-swirls I created.

Yesterday this knitting book I bought from an Amazon used seller arrived. What a fantastic sock book. Makes me want to pull out my yarn and start some socks...but first, I must finish the latest hat project!!!! And about 100 other projects of various sorts I have sitting around...Between my mitten book and now socks...time to put on some more old movies and knit I think.

Should show you some photos one day soon.

Plus, all this new CHA items are showing up people's blogs and websites-it is quite exciting. Tim Holtz has some fun new items coming, as does Studio 490, Sizzix... love seeing what the trends are.

I've kind of been in arty heaven lately...just wish I could spend more hours a day at it.

Just want to finish my holiday journal too so I can move on in that area too!

But maybe by this weekend...I'll keep plodding along.

That's my post for today.

I appreciate your visiting.

After a long weekend And Blogger's Challenge

So where did this long weekend go? It was a great weekend but somehow it didn't quite turn out like I planned. Of course who can plan their time totally. But I wanted to finish my journal-nope. I wanted to do a few more chores like vaccing upstairs and do more studio cleaning, finish reading my book...nope.  Did get to Costco and Trader Joe's though. Did have fun Saturday night at the hockey game and discovered a new place. Did sleep in. Did relax. Did talk to my former college roomate who've I been meaning to call forever. Did a get a bunch done of my travel journal. What more should I ask for? Does that mean my weekend wasn't as successful as I wanted? Part of me feels that way and I am trying to get past the lack of check-offs on my mental goal list...it is Monday evening and I am feeling rather like I wasted a lot of the weekend...when I didn't...I think my goals were just too unrealistic. Simple as that.

Isn't is so true that often weekends/vacations never are as long as you think they're going to be, even when you know they always fly by? There's rarely the perfectly balanced weekend.  But it was still a good weekend-even though I'm not totally satisfied in my head because I had this stupid will finish list ...cuz that's all it is...the feeling of unfinishedness in my head.

So here's some more fun pages from my holiday journal. This one came out really different than my ususal, but it was so much fun to make because it is so different. I used a new years Autumn Leaves stamp first and colored it with some watercolor crayons. Then I stamped the January word (Hero Arts) all over the page and I colored with background with 2 different colored inkpads. Then I added a large die cut #1 (Sizzix) and some October Afternoon stickers in it. And I die cut the little pennant and then connected them with some black sharpie...added the black line edges...the words....

And here's my sleep in page. The little alarm clock photo and the October Afternoon stickers. I stamped the words (Technique Tuesday) all over the page and added a little black ink smoke from the chimneys.

I'm also using this page on Blogger's Challenge!!!!!!

How about this funky page. An old PSX stamp all over the background in green...some doodled and colored words...some ink distressing the background...and I took an October Afternoon saying and clipped it into pieces and put it down and then I stamped the car (Cornish Heritage Farm) and isn't it a great car?

Here's my handsome guy. I used this cool Martha Stewart paper, some die cut hearts, some 7Gypsies paper tape and some red October Afternoon trim, and this glittery cool little buckle from my stash that came from who knows where...

And finally, paws. My baby-boy Harley's paws. I started by putting down the red striped paper scrap and then used a black fine point Sharpie to scribble the doodles, added some 7Gypsies tape, some die cut hearts which I colored...added some pawprint stamps (some old Elsie Flannigan stamps), added a black slide edge and a little metal woof charm, a few little heart stickers...

That's today's art...thanks for stopping by to check it out.



Holiday Journal Peeks

As I write this my holiday journal is not quite finished-and I want it to be...but it is Sunday night and I just came down from the studio as I  was getting frustrated with my results. What happens is I then get hyper-focus on those not so fantastic pages...and that's bad. This is when you need a little space between you and the project. So I came back downstairs and decided to write today's post. 

Here's some pages that are done that I photographed the other morning when I had a delay. Since I was using my happy light...there's a bit of a glare on some photos. Nothing better than natural light but in Northern New England in winter, you don't always get a lot of that.

This page uses some paper, some Smash tape, a die cut heart and some stickers / ephemera from October Afternoon's Christmas set.

Love this page. I used the new lens I got for Christmas to get this snap of a holiday tag. I love this paper from October Afternoon. I used some aluminum tape and stamped the tire tracks (it might be Gel-a-tins but I don't think so). Trying to think of the names of some of these old stamp companies you never see any more.

Anyhow...the out of this world saying is from Cornigh Heritage Farm and the santa claus is coming to town is an old Limited Edition stamp. The december in the tag is from a recent Studio AE/Technique Tuesday stamp and the number stickers are also from October Afternoon.

Fun page here. I used Martha Stewart Paper, 3 Technique Tuesday images, a piece of Smash Book tape, a Cavalinni santa sticker, some ribbon and a white button.

Another page I'm really happy with. I used October Afternoon paper, the photo which I garnished with some diecuts (Marianne Crafts) and then hung some pre-made glitter paper ornaments-that I embellished with some Stickles. The little red glitter tree at the bottom is also from the same collection as the ornaments, the Santa sticker is October Afternoon and the stamped words is 7Gypsies.

Finally, this journaling page. The chevron paper is October Afternoon-Love it! The fringe is stamped with a Flourishes' Stamp. The celebrate is from a Studio AE/Technique Tuesday stamp set. The N in the circle is from an Autumn Leaves alphabet set and the skaters are a sticker from October Afternoon. I die cut the 2 scalloped circles (Sizzix) and journaled in the words.

Did I show you this knitting book I bought from Amazon and that I am going to read?

I've been knitting Fair Isle hats lately and am ready to move on to some heritage mittens. This book has lots of patterns from old time Maine and Atlantic Canada. There's next of my list of new things to experiment with and learn. Love ethnic of heritage knitting.

Well, I am off today for the Martin Luther King holiday. Maybe I'll get back into the studio and finish this journal today.

Have an artful day and thanks for visiting.

Thoughts of the future

It has been a VERY VERY cold Sunday here in New Hampshire...in the single digits during the day with wind-brrrr. Dave's been watching football all day, including last night's Pat's game which we missed and recorded and both watched this morning. Last night we went to the Merimac-Maine hockey game at Merrimac College in Massachusetts. Was a good hockey game-went into overtime and except for the goal Maine scored with 27 seconds left that the refs said came after the whistle...and we think came before the whistle...was a fun night out. We went with Dave's older sister and her hubby and then went out to the Alehouse for dinner in Amesbury, MA which was a new place for me. Great beer menu...was fun trying some different brews. FUN.

So back to today...worked on my holiday journal...didn't quite finish and am a bit mad at myself about that but was more in a cleaning mood and I did some picking up in the studio...but wanted to finish...maybe that was an over-reaching goal for the afternoon. Still, kind of works on your psyche... I need get rid of that goal oriented point of view right now. I did spend 2 hours on the phone with my college roomate Lorrie whom I haven't spoken with for ever-which was fantastic...and otherwise I've been kind of lazy and dragging...

So yesterday besides the hockey game we went to Costco and Trader Joe's, but before that I started assembleling my travel journal for our Feb. trip to Tuscon. I am using a different format this time...usually I like a blank board book  but I found this fun mini-notebook & supplies at Staples  so I am going to try them. Why not? I also found a few cardboard bingo pages and some 7Gypsie small paper pages at my fav. craft store...you can see that in my assortment of pages on the table here-

I had to punch everything to fit my little red notebook. But I am so happy with how it worked out.

Here's a few more photos.

Hope you're warm and enjoying your weekend too.

Looking Backwards to Jump Start 2012

Some of my favorite art from blog posts in 2007: here's some snippets.

What a fantastically creative year it was. I need to start exploring some more and playing some more...2011 was a great art year but I didn't spread my wings very far...lots of cards and scrapbook journaling...tried many new things but all within those limits. Not a lot of cloth...some hat knitting, no polymer clay art, a bit of metal clay but not a lot...

I need some recharge and MAYBE some confidence by looking back and seeing what I did-and that makes me feel good.

 

 

Last night I watched a couple of redbox movies-one of them was Midnight In Paris-wow-loved it! I want a man like the one that Owen Wilson played...not that I don't adore my hubby...but that guy was so great and being in Paris....and those great people in the 1920's...wow, what a time.

10 things Friday

1-It is SO hard to get up for work at this time of year when it is COLD and DARK. I just want to sleep.

2-It's Friday the 13th. Are you supersitious?

3-So excited-long weekend ahead. That means I can sleep late for 3 mornings. YAHOO!!

4-Hockey game tomorrow again-going with Dave's older sister and her hubby to see Maine play at Merrimac. After last weekend's fantastic win maybe we'll still be on a roll.
5- Katie is off to NYC for this weekend. I am so jealous. I love NYC...wait a minute...I love to go practically everywhere.
5- This weekend I am going to finish my Holiday Journal if it means I have to sit for every moment of the weekend working. I want to finish...I am ready to move on.
6- Then I am going to clean up my studio a bit...it isn't too too bad...but all my holiday items (like the giant bin of rubber stamps I have accumulated) need to get picked up and pushed out of the way...I store my holiday items in the back of the closet...I can get to them easy enough if I want them but they are out of the way enough that they don't take up useful storage space.
7-Icey so we have another delay this morning. And yesterday we had some icky messy winter weather...we had a our first delay (was raining when I got to the coast) but the drive down the Spaulding Turnpike was HORRIBLE-the snow was less here than in Dover and the drive home up the Spaulding Turnpike was HORRIBLE as it was icing in Dover and I hope that doesn't happen again soon.
8-Still watching my old movies-right now I am into Katherine Hepburn.
9-Still reading the Origin about Darwin...enjoying it but it a slow read. I am more than 1/2 way through now though...this week has not been a big reading week,
10-This week has been a bit less busy than last week at work, thankfully. Still, too many meetings! One day can throw off your whole week. But you know what, it is FRIDAY and the week is winding down! I also think I am so ready for a vacation...even though I was just off...two weeks down until the next one...and then we're off to Arizona...and anyhow...the quarter ends in just 5 more school days-not counting today.

And here's 2 totally random photos for you...my new Friday addition to my 10 things right now list:

Here's a COOL moose a Cabella's in Scarborough, Maine.

Here's me at the science museum in Boston in this cool glass wall .

Winter Arrives

I know winter arrived last month-officially, but here in New Hampshire we have been having weird winter weather. A huge snow storm the last weekend in October-never happened before- then snow  just before Thanksgiving, which isn't weird but then it got warm and melted and since then any little snow we've gotten has melted and it has been fairly warm. We've had lots of days in the 40's- which is really unusual for this neck of the woods.

Not that I am complaining because so far I am actually enjoying this winter weather.

That's changing...or at least what is forecasted Wednesday night when I am writing this post for tomorrow-actually when you see this it is now today- Thursday. Don't yet know if I will be out in the elements on my way to work or home in my pj's...will let you know that later.

But here's my card, a silly one I made a while back and I don't think I showed you.

All stamps are by Paper Smooches or Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farm.

This bunny is from the Little Lovin set. I stamped him on white paper colored pink and then I highlighted and used a white pen for the white parts. I mounted Mr. Silly on some pinkish-orangey paper I die cut. Actually I took pink cardstock and then some fun heart paper that I like because it looks hand doodled. I mounted that on the cardstock and then put Mr. Silly Bunny in his oval on this. The carrots are from the CHF pet set that Kim Hughes did and the words are from another Kim Hughes CHF set.

Then I doodled the white frames, which I think work really well on this card as the whole card has this distressed silly kind of feel.

Great for a day of old man's winter weather.

Speaking of CHF, I know they are back in a form with new owners and lots of digital images, but I am waiting for them to come out with their actual rubber. Anyone know when?

Well, I hope your weather is what you want it to be.

And if you're in the snow/ice/sleet and freezing rain like me

Stay warm and dry, ok?

Recarding

Above:NEW CARD

Below: OLD CARD



It is my word-recarding-and it is like regifting but it using parts of a perviously made card to make a new card, or cards, depending on how you recard.

So the white card directly above these words is a card I made last year. I loved how the lion on the polka dot paper came out, but I hated how it looked on the white background cardstock.

So I took my old card and cut out the  what I did like, including bits of the white cardstock and part of the die cut flower at the top. I also left behind the row of gemstones.

And then I attached this onto a new card made from some grey cardstock. Finally I added the saying on the bottom of the card which is from a Cornish Heritage Farms set.

The original card deisng is made using the lion stamp-LaBlanche, the Egypt word (B Line Design), some Tim Holtz paper tape, a Sizzix flower die cut which is distressed with brown ink and a small brass brad added, some polka paper and a row of Hero Arts amber colored gemstones.

So that's my recard. Yesterday was one of those days at work I never got a second to think. Busy, busy, busy. Tomorrow/tonight they're saying some icky messy weather. Hmmm.  Maybe we'll get winter yet.
And maybe- which I would love to finish up my holiday journal-I'll get a snow day.
Keep dreaming girl.
Until next post.

Can't Decide the Season

We're back into the off-season weather today, 30's- 40's, which is pretty warm for January. And we have no snow on the ground, so it feels more like late spring than the start of winter. I think I rather like that though.

I'd love it if we could stay snow free this winter but I don't think that will happen.

So here's a colorful card to share with you...the kind of card I might normally make in March when I am tired of having no color outside and when I am thinking of spring. But since I am already thinking of spring, here's the card. It is a randomly organized card...if you can be random and organized at the same time.

I started with this great green cardstock (LOVE this color) and added some blue 7Gyspies paper tape on it. Then I took a masterboard and punched out 3 inchies from it. I made the masterboard with a diamond foam stamp and some blue acrylic paint, plus some stamps. I can see here I used a Cat'sLifePress definition, a Stampington clear French word stamp and a flower which could be Hero Arts but am not certain since on the entire board I used several other flowers.

I arranged the inchies on the card and attached them. Then in the bottom right corner area I stamped this saying (Dylusions/Stampers Anonymous) and colored it in green. Then I added the Prima felt flower and some Viva Paint pen dots.

But like randomly organized, this card is simple and complex at the same time too.

OK, enough of my mixed adjectives...

It is primary day today too.

Got to remember to vote after work.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Last Full Week of the Quarter

Next week at school exams start on Thursday...and we have next Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, so this is my last 5 day week and I need to make a push to finish up my classes.

Wow!

Means a bit of concentrated work this week, but looks like it is not going to be a bad week weather wise and so most likely no snow days (which is good) and so work should get finished without a lot of things to throw off the momentum. This week is a very quiet week on my calendar too, so depending how insane work gets...it could be an actually relaxing week and maybe I can finish up my holiday journal which I really really want to do. And read more of my Darwin book which I really want to do too.

I worked all afternoon yesterday in the studio which was so much fun...and I was on a roll and did a bunch of pages in my holiday journal. I knew I wouldn't finish, but I hoped to be really really close to that point. Instead I just got close, but then that's ok. I just don't want to be so sick of working on it that I put it away unfinished-because then it will never get done.

Here's a card I made last weekend.

No the right edge is NOT cut off...that's how the card looks.

I really like the freshness and the colors of this car. The cool texture too.

So I took pink cardstock and ran an embossing folder on the middle right side with my Sizzix BigKick. Then I took white pigment ink and rubbed it over the texture. On white paper I stamped the bunny, deer and bird (Stampington-StoryBook Village by Purnima Girouard). Then I colored them with Copics and cut them out. I die cut the oval on green printed paper and then using a white pen I doodled the edge of the oval. To assemble- I used some black polka dot Smash Book tape to make the border. Then I attached the green oval and the animals. (I did stamp the bird directly onto the card so the feet would be there and then glued down my colored and cut out bird over that. Easier than cutting around the feet.) Then I stamped the saying (Crafty Secrets-their old fashioned bug set) and then I took this fun holiday-ish white fringe and ran it around the card.

A good cheery Monday card and I how I feel about the weekend we just had...sorry to see it go.

Happy Monday!



WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!

I bet you can't guess the game results...Maine won 5-4 in Overtime.

Here's a very happy fan!

What a great night last night was. First of all the Frozen Fenway was 2 hockey east college games- first UMASSachuusetts (Amherst) vs University of Vermont and then University of New Hampshire vs  the University of Maine. They sold a total of a little more than 38,000 tickets for this series (as they flashed on the screen), and I think most of the people were Maine, UNH people although there were a lot for the other game. Our tickets were good for both games-we saw the end of the first game and of course, stayed for ours. It was awesome seeing people walk around in all their school gear. Of course UNH and Maine is a rivalry game so it is HUGE- and Maine lost the last 2 times they met UNH so we needed this win. All the cheering and booing of the crowds during this game was great. I have hardly any voice left.  I can you that when your team loses to UNH it is only a hockey game but when you beat UNH at Frozen Fenway in overtime it's fantastic! Especially when you ride home with the 2 UNH fans (Katie and Brian).

Plus- it never got below 50 degrees last-in Boston in January!!!!!! I didn't put my coat on until the end of the sceond period.

end of the second period score

the fans

flag over the famous green monster wall at Fenway during the game opening

the ice, not the greatest view we've ever had at a hockey game- but the big tv was fantastic.

So after the game all the Maine people were high-fiving and cheering.. the game started late so it didn't end until going on 11 and on our 2 hour drive home we stopped at Sonic on route 1 for a snack and the lot was full of Maine and UNH cars and people were still yelling go Maine and waving...

I am still floating on good vibes if you can't tell.

And next Saturday we go see Maine play Merrimac College at Merrimac- that will be a tough game since Merrimac is doing so well but hopefully Maine will still be on a strong playing roll.

Thanks for visiting!