UGH! What a week!!!
Sunday I injured my right elbow to the point where I couldn't grip anything, couldn't straighten it completely and basically couldn't do a darn thing with it.
It makes working on a computer and writing stuff very difficult when you can't move your arm!!!
So, needless to say, I had a horrible week! But today is Friday, I got off work early AND my arm is about 80% better....so I can actually use it!!!!!!! Yay!
All morning I just kept telling myself....just a couple more hours, just 60 minutes, just.... and you can go play in your art room.
So, I played! :-D
If you are like me you get new pretty card stock or a new sketch book and you are a bit apprehensive about using it. The thought running through your mind is....I don't want to mess it up.
Well that has been me for the past week, not that I could actually do much but I wanted to and yet didn't want to lol
A little over a week ago I bought a new journal. It is gorgeous! I saw some when I was on vacation but they didn't have colors or designs that I liked...well not together if you know what I mean. So I looked them up online when I got home and ordered the design I wanted in the color I wanted and it is so beautiful!
It is a gorgeous dark teal. The photo is actually pretty close. It is about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide and made of leather. It smells wonderful :-)
I ordered it from Oberon Design.
On vacation I kept drooling over all the journals (three different sizes) and really wanted to bring one home with me. We had to search all over the display to find a name of the maker. So I go online once we get home and am looking at all the fabulous designs and see a dragonfly cover and think, "Gee that looks just like my wallet". Sure enough, stamped inside my wallet is Oberon Design. So I know their products hold up really well because I have carried that wallet in my pocket (hate purses lol) every single day for about 10 years and it still looks brand new!
But back to my story lol
I have been really nervous about actually using it. But with the week I had today was the day.
I drew April. I miss seeing her sweet face every day. I know it isn't perfect but I am pretty pleased with it. I struggle drawing animals and people so the fact that I can recognize what it is is a huge plus to me lol
Here is the online photo I was using for reference.
The angle is a bit off but for now I can live with it.
That's all I have for this week. Not much to share when you are out of commission with a gimpy wing lol
I'm looking forward to some springtime weather this weekend. Maybe I will find some crafty inspiration.
Happy Crafting!
Congratulations April on the birth of your beautiful baby boy. 4/15/2017
For those of you that might have spent the last 2 months in a cave, April the giraffe became an international super star as the world watched and waited for her, via live YouTube, to give birth to her 4th calf. Last Saturday we were rewarded with the opportunity to witness the birth and the first wobbly steps of her sweet baby.
I have enjoyed every minute of the live cam. April is such a sweet lady and had such a calming effect on not just me but millions of people around the world.
Who could resist this adorable face???
Thank you Animal Adventure Park for sharing this wonderful journey with the world.
But, as they told us from the beginning, once the baby was born the camera would be taken down. Now you wouldn't think that would be a big deal. But it was. After spending every waking minute for 2 months watching the live feed. Yes, my computer and ipad were always tuned into April. When the camera was turned off yesterday there was suddenly a great void in my heart. And I was not alone. Thousands of people have been expressing their sadness on the AAP Facebook page. We all fell in love with this beautiful giraffe. She became a part of our lives, our families.
How do I process my sadness? Through art of course. :-)
I am in a small canvas swap with the BadBabies and while picking up my 3x3 canvas I saw a 4x6 and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.
My original thought was just April and baby (who at this time still does not have a name). I googled "giraffe mom and baby silhouette" and didn't really find what I wanted so I changed the search to "baby giraffe silhouette" and this popped up.
After watching baby gallop and frolick around the stall for a week I knew this was exactly what I wanted.
But then I thought Oliver should be included since he is the proud papa.
I found this image of 2 giraffes and in Cricut Design Space I removed the giraffe on the right.
Cricut Design Space is so awesome. You can upload images of many types and then manipulate them and cut them with your Cricut Explore.
I welded the 2 above images to create this single cut file.
Now I have my giraffe family.
I used a technique called Paint Vinyl Paint Peel (PVPP).
I base coated the entire canvas in black acrylic paint.
I then cut out the giraffes in vinyl and applied that over the black paint.
Now the magic begins.
I painted my sunset sky OVER the vinyl. If you look closely you can see the vinyl under the paint.
I ended up painting 2 coats to cover the black (I probably should have done 3 but...)
For some reason, the vinyl popped up at the base of the baby's leg so I knew I was going to need to repair that spot but the rest held down beautifully.
I painted a sun and then waited for all the paint to dry.
Then I simply peeled off the vinyl and Voila!
Isn't it cool how you can paint the sun on top, and yet by peeling off the vinyl, it now appears behind the giraffe's head?
I have used this technique several times now and love it more and more each time!
I could have painted the giraffes by hand but probably would not have gotten such crisp edges.
This technique gave me exactly the image I had in my head.
And now I have a permanent reminder of my giraffe family and those wonderful 2 months.
Happy Crafting!
Hubby and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary. We always take a few days and head to the coast. It is a nice way to relax and so nice to get away but it also keeps me from creating much lol
I did manage to get my Mother's Day cards done before we left.
My camera is having issues. Every picture has a yellow cast. I keep messing with the settings and it makes no difference. This card is actually blue (not aqua lol) and the interior layer is white.
The fancy lace edge is a cutting die from Crafter's Companion called Sophia. Isn't it gorgeous?! It was another one of those March 8 craft day purchases. I told you I bought WAY MORE than I usually do! lol
The lace corner comes from the Vintage Wedding Cricut image set. I have no idea if that is a cartridge or just a set in Design Space as I had never heard of it before. The actual image is a round lace doily that I sliced down to just a corner piece.
The flowers are also from Cricut and is called 3D Cactus Flower.
"Happy Mother's Day" was cut with my Cuttlebug. "Happy" came from the Crafter's Companion die set call 'Let's Party'. I liked the smaller size. This set is actually designed to go with the Diamond Press cut/emboss machine but the dies work great in the Cuttlebug too.
"Mother's Day" comes from Anna's 'Wishful Thinking' set. It also has a 'happy' die but it is much larger and took up too much space. I love how all these word dies from CC and AG can be mixed together!
This card just kept growing lol
I started with Anna's Flower Bramble cutting die in pink on top of the cream card base.
I then cut the image for the sentiment (and it's dark pink layer) from the Fantastic Flips Cricut cartridge. I stamped the sentiment using Anna Griffin's flip card stamp sentiments set.
I needed more so I used Print Then Cut on the Cricut Explore and cut the roses which are on the Fantastic Flips extra content cartridge.
I needed even more so I added the lavender layer under the Flower Bramble.
Ugh! I felt it still needed MORE lol So I dug through the cutting die drawer (yes, I have a drawer and it is over flowing - even after moving a ton of dies into magnetic storage binders lol)
I cut the cream, rounded edge lace using a die from the Eleanor Laces set.
You know I don't normally have this many layers on a card but I think I was channeling Anna Griffin lol
I like how it turned out so I guess Anna didn't steer me wrong. :-)
And lastly...
Hubby's niece announced this week that she is engaged. I thought that deserved a card. :-)
The fancy edge is from Anna Griffin's edge die set. These dies cut so beautifully!
I then added a cream strip topped with a vellum embossed layer using the border from the Bit of Paisley embossing folder set.
The roses and sentiment were embellishments from one of the AG flip card sets.
Here is a close-up of the embossed vellum. It looks a lot like lace when you emboss it.
Helpful tip: put a piece of card stock under the vellum in the embossing folder. It keeps the vellum from tearing AND you also get an embossed layer to use in a later project.
Here is a picture from our anniversary trip. It was close to sunset on a cloudy day. This is the Coquille River lighthouse in Bandon, Oregon.
It no longer contains a light but is still a beautiful building. It is often open for tours and you can climb up into the light tower.
I hope you all have a beautiful week and lots of crafting time!
Happy Crafting!!!
