Wreck This Journal

The badbaby art group is going to do a "wreck this journal' swap. I have never done one of these and with all the stress in my life, I thought it would be great fun!

We will 'wreck' someone elses journal and then send it back but I thought I would like to have one to keep as well so I bought a copy of Keri Smith's book that started this craze.

This way I can play and get to keep it and remind myself of how I felt at the time and savor the memories LOL
Here is my journal, pristine and just home from the store! I haven't even cracked the spine yet (which is one of the instructions LOL)

For our swap journals, we need to buy a composition journal with at least 100 pages. I found one in a really obnoxious green that anyone would LOVE to wreck! HaHa We then put our own instructions on each page. I had no problems coming up with the first 40 or so. It took some deep thought for the next 40 and now I am struggling for the last 20. No problem though, I have until...um....late May? early June? I better go and find out!

I will keep you posted when I do some interesting wrecking on either this journal or the swap one. :-)

My other news is that although I miss my baby Tucker and will never ever forget him, I got a new cat this week.

She is completely different in both looks and personality!

Her name is Mignonette (min-yawn-et), Minnie for short. It means 'delicate'. She is very dainty! She is also very outgoing and loves EVERYONE! She picked me out at the Animal Shelter and they estimate that she is a year old.

She and Kitty (hubby's cat) are still working out the boundaries but seem to be getting closer every day.

Isn't she a cutie?

She now sports a silver, shimmery collar because she is such a princess!

A new True Colors journal

This weekend I finally got around to working on Teresa's journal. I have had it for about a month now and just kept putting it off. The problem was, her color scheme was WAY outside my comfort zone. She chose colors I rarely use and NEVER use them together! (well I do use Red a lot but never with Bright Green and Orange!)

You have no idea how much I worried over this one! I flipped through the book looking at all the other artwork and don't get me wrong, it is wonderful....but it was just not my style.

Oh what to do?!

My brain just kept coming back to the strolling couple. (no clue who makes this stamp) I finally decided they needed to be strolling in a strange landscape. I really began longing for the UFO I carved years ago but the ex took that in the divorce....don't get me started on that issue! I painted their clothing with Twinkling H2os so they would shimmer.

So, the search began....not an unpleasant thing when you own over 3000 stamps.

I pulled out my new bare trees from Inkadinkado and turned them into brightly painted bushes. I stamped them on orange cardstock and then drew in the path with colored pencils.

The hills are a Fred B Mullett stamp (Menpachi to be exact). What, doesn't everyone use a fish to create hills?

I cut a stencil and used water-based oil pastel crayons to add some faint clouds.

The moon is from Tin Can Mail, she is colored with pencils as well.

The couple dancing on the clouds is from Emerald City Stamps. Their clothes are also painted with the Twinkling H2os.

I sat back and looked at the world I had created and have to say I really like it LOL But, I felt it needed something more. Alas, the chicken decided she needed to make an appearance...I just love her expression. (she hails from Art Gone Wild). I drew her sign and then stamped in the words 'wish you were here'.

Believe me when I say, this piece is much brighter in person LOL

Oh and don't you love that funky sky? I have had that sheet of paper for over 10 years. No idea what possessed me to buy it in the first place but it sure fit in great with this piece!

So, Teresa's book was set up so that you removed a page and arted up the front and the back...instead of the typical open book spread where both pages create one piece of artwork.

This was both a challenge and a relief. I didn't have to have one huge landscape, I could go in 2 completely different directions.

As I was browsing for stamps for page 1, I began pulling ideas for page 2...just in case something came to mind.

I grabbed the woman and the hands both of which I had just picked up on my last visit to the coast.

As I stared at the woman...hey, if you are going to be that size and stand like that you deserve to be stared at! I really wanted to put her in a mason jar...don't ask me why. But, the only jar I could find wasn't big enough. I have a bigger one but can't find it! I really need to reorganize my stamps (again!) But I did remember where my snowglobe was and she was a perfect fit!

So, I had the beginnings of an idea but how to proceed. I began the search for background paper and the first stack I picked up was the Once Upon A Time mat stack...what the heck...I found the mermaid paper and loved how her posture echoed that of my exercising? woman and the sparklies were all bright shimmery green!

I stamped my woman (VivaLasVegastamps) and painted her outfit with Twinkling H2os (of course! LOL). Next came the snowglobe (Rubber Stamps Inc). I stamped the globe on transparency film and the base on cardstock.

The sand is one of my first stamps and is over 20 years old...some stamps never go out of style! In all these years I have never needed to know who made that stamp so I never peeled off the price sticker (I paid $5.50 btw) until now because of course, the company name was under the sticker....it was from a company called Raindrops on Roses. Hmm, never heard of them LOL Anyway, the sand was stamped 3 times and layered around the woman's foot.

The hands come from Stamper's Anonymous. They come very close together on the stamp, I cut them apart after stamping and moved them farther apart to support the snowglobe.

I played with the idea of adding text but decided against it.

I know this second piece doesn't have any red or orange but my muse has been silent for such a long time that I figured if this was what she wanted to do then who was I to argue?! Besides, it made me smile and I think that is what was important for this piece. :-)

My Float Came Home

My float arrived in the mail today! I was so excited I was giggling all the way back across the street, clutching the box tightly to my chest!

When you go to make your float they ask you what color you want....any color. No one told me I could only pick one color so I said, "blue and green". Daniel says, "ok, but we have 2 colors of blue....turquoise and cobalt". I told him I wanted both! He said that was no problem. Now all the people ahead of me picked just one color....guess I just like to be different. LOL If you watch the video you will see him laying out the piles of color.

What I found out a few minutes later was that when you pick a color they dump out a pile of colored chips. It is a mix of colors so in the green box was a really dark, clear emerald, a milky grass green, a light yellow-green and at least 1 or 2 more shades. so, by choosing 3 colors I was in reality choosing about 12-15 colors. Who knew?! LOL

Below is a view of the studio's mark stamped into the plug.

Blowing my own Glass Float!

We just got back from a mini anniversary vacation over to the Oregon Coast.

While over there, I made hubby drive me up to Lincoln City to try my hand at glass blowing. (something I have never done before)

The Jennifer Sears Glass Studio offers you the opportunity to blow a float or paper weight with the help of one on one instruction.

My instructor, Daniel, was very patient and kept telling me repeatedly what a great job I was doing. I don't know if this was true or not but it sure made me feel like I was not a total doofus! LOL

I highly recommend, if you are ever in the vicinity of Lincoln City, to check it out. I had a blast!

Below is the video of my experience from start to finish. I will warn you, it is almost 15 minutes long AND because I had to reduce the file size so much to be able to show it online, the sound it a bit weird.....but if you have the patience and make it to the end, you will get to see my finished float. :-)

I don't currently have my float....as it turns out, when the float is finished, it is still something like 1200 degrees so they put them in a kiln and lower the temperature slowly so they don't crack or shatter. You could pick it up the following day or have it shipped. As we were going to be driving all the way down the coast, I opted to have it shipped. I should have it by either Saturday or next Monday. I will post a photo when it arrives.