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.

True Colors swap - again

It has been quite a while since I had one of the books from the True Colors swap that I am in (before Christmas I think)

I just finished working on Nancy's "Neutrals with subtle pinks, blues and greens"

I browsed through my paper stash and found this "postcard" paper in my Photo Stack pack. I thought it fit the 'neutral' theme well and I love using writing as background.

I then began thinking about what would go with all those correspondences. What if someone was having a long-distance relationship?

So, I then began the search through my clip art cds for the perfect woman. I think she portrays a feeling of longing and hope.

The text is from Mahatma Ghandi: Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

The butterflies were created in Photoshop Elements. They are from a set of butterfly brushes you can download for free here

I first created them in color then did a final layer in black to define the lines. I printed them onto transparency film and attached them to the pages by just their body using Crystal Lacquer.

Queen For A Day!

The latest Bad Baby swap? A mini book. The theme? Queen For A Day. Oh Boy! Wouldn't I LOVE to be a queen for a day!!!!!!!


First, to make the book, go Here


I used a page from my Far East mat stack. It was a bit thick but with a lot of heavy use of the bone folder, I think it will be ok. I cut the 12x12 page down to 9x12. I wanted a bit more space to art up then a 8 1/2x11 page gave me.


This is my cover. All the women in my book are from StoneHouseStamps. This woman is colored completely with colored pencils.

Pages 1 and 2. The dresses on both of these women were colored with watercolor pencils. On everything else I used regular colored pencils.

Pages 3 and 4. Everything but their skin is watercolored.

Pages 5 and 6, again, everything but her skin is watercolored. The bamboo and dragonfly are both from VivaLasVegaStamps.

I thought this was such a fun project. I was able to complete the entire thing in just a few hours. Now I have to send it off and will received someone else's ideas of what it means to be Queen for the Day.

April Showers

I am still trying to get caught up on my sleep after 'springing forward' last weekend and can hardly keep my eyes open but I just had the urge to stamp....so I did!

A few weeks back (a couple days after Tucker died) I bought a stamp of a silhouette of a line of bare trees. It just had a cold, empty feeling to it....kind of like how I was feeling....and I thought it would be great for a winter scene (which I am sure it will). But this evening, I looked at it and it demanded to be a row of Cherry Blossoms. (I'll bet it is going to be great in the fall too!)

I stamped my trees (Inkadinkado) in black in on a scrap of one of my Far East background papers. I then stippled on rose acrylics followed by pink and finally a tiny bit of white. I like how the texture of the paper shows on the trunks, I think it makes them have a softer feel, not so stark.

I used more of that Chinese newspaper, torn into pieces, for my ground. I brushed the edges with various shades of green water color pencil.

I stamped the girl (StoneHouseStamps) onto plain white cardstock (actually I use unruled index cards for these types of things--no visible texture, nice and white and a good weight).

I colored her using regular and water color pencils.

She was attached to the card using foam tape so she would stand out.

Retirement Card

A friend at work is retiring in a couple weeks (lucky girl!) so I made her a card.

This is the digital collage I put on the front of the card.

The "postage" frame is part of the Photoshop Elements 5.0 goodies. :-)

I found the champagne bottle in a Dover clipart book, scanned it, then did a light 'wash' over it to give it a tint.

The banner at the top is part of the Scrapbooking items already in Elements, I just added the text and although it is hard to see here, did a little shading where the ribbon bends to give it depth. Plus I added a drop shadow.

Happy Retirement Marsha!!!!!

Addie the Math Fairy

I took time the last couple nights to just play!

So here is Addie the Math Fairy....sure could have used her when I was in school!!!!!!

The background is a page from a child's math book (from an ephemera cd). To get the "creases" in the paper, I overlaid a layer of a man's handkerchief (from another ephemera cd) that had fold lines in it then decreased the opacity.

The girl and the bird were also from cds. I made separate layers for the girls dress and bow so I could color them.

Her wings are "brushes" that I added to a separate layer and then tinted.

The numbers came from my Scrapbook Factory Deluxe program.

As you can see, I was grabbing stuff from all over!

I had a blast messing around and trying out new things!

Dark to Light

I kicked my husband out of the house this morning so that I could have peace, quiet and alone time at my art desk.

I had a few ideas floating in my head and a couple new stamps on my desk.

I have been feeling pretty low lately and after talking to my friend Diane, I want to try to really focus on positive things when the negativity starts swirling around in my brain.

This piece came out of that. It works from dark to light across the board.

I stamped the asian beauty (StoneHouseStamps) with permanent ink and colored her with pencils. She is an odd stamp in that her image is just cut off straight on both sides so I had to "hide" that if I wanted to use her in the middle of the piece. I found, in my stash, the gorgeous scrap of Japanese paper - grays, tans, gold, silver.

I had to pull out a tool that I have not used in years and years....my stamp positioner! Do they even make those any more? I had purchased the "Japanese Maple" stamp (Penny Black) last week and was dying to try it out. I wanted the shadows from the branch to fall across the woman's face.

As you can see, I am still pulling out that ancient Chinese newspaper. I swear, I could use pieces of it every day and it would still be around 10 years from now LOL

The red background paper is from the Far East Mat Stack....lots of lovely papers in that assortment!

I added the swirly dragonfly (Magenta) and chop (Asian Woods) to the upper right corner. I lastly stamped the postage stamp from Technique Tuesday and colored with with watercolor pencils. Then I cut it out....all those little dents! and glued it to the lower right corner.

Now, to bring it all together -- I painted the leaves with Twinkling H2Os. (love those things!!!!) leaving the leaf shadows just plain ink. Using Walnut Stain Distress Ink, I darkened the left side of the piece. and finally, using Frost White Pigment Ink, I rubbed the entire right side.

It was so nice to be able to just sit and create. Now to find a place to display it (or anything else!) Someday I will post a photo of my art room. I have a friend that says it makes her claustrophobic as there is not a single inch of open space on the walls (or my desk top LOL)

Ode to Annette

A few weeks ago, while I was sick for a week with the flu, I spent a lot of time watching classic movies on tv.

One of those movies was Million Dollar Mermaid. It is the story of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. It is a gorgous Esther Williams movie!

The story of Annette Kellerman was a facinating one. A huge turning point for her career was when she was arrested, during a publicity stunt, for indecent exposure on a beach. She was wearing a one piece swimming suit.

If you get the chance, rent the movie....the scenes in the Hippodrome are fabulous!

This piece is another scrap of paneling from our bathroom remodel. I used porcelain crackle on it. When it was dry I rubbed it with a rough cloth and took off the crackles. I then used antiquing gel to give it a brown stain, darker at the bottom and getting lighter toward the top.

The quote is from a newspaper story of the trial as is the photo of Annette standing on the beach.

The stamp is from Tin Can Mail and looks as if it too could be Miss Kellerman. I colored it with Twinkling H2Os. I love the rich colors and shimmer of mica.

Inchies!

I could never understand the facination with Inchies. I just couldn't see why anyone would want to work on something so small.

Then, for no reason I can comprehend, I wanted to make some. Don't ask me why! I also knew I did NOT want to hand cut all those squares so I bought an Inch punch before Christmas.

I toyed with the idea for a while and then put it on the back burner as I cared for my baby. But I finally jumped in....and hosted a swap!

I figured the best way to insure that I actually made some Inchies was to host a swap....then I HAD to finish them! :-)

The theme is flowers.

I worked on them all this week. It took mind off of Tucker....sort of. He would have loved this swap as he LOVED to help with all my projects and the smaller the pieces the more fun he had playing with them. This was a project right up his alley! :-)

It was nice to be able to create and remember Tucker in a good way.

One very odd thing. The majority of colors I used were Purple, Yellow and Pink....colors I am not wild about and as far as Yellow....Hate! Very Strange LOL

It has been over a week since I have posted anything.

My last post was on Feb. 4. On Friday, February 6, my beloved little Tucker lost his battle with kidney disease. It was the hardest thing I have had to endure, letting him go.

He was such a huge part of my life. I talked to him constantly (and he listened and replied). I keep expecting to see him peeking around the corner at me or sitting in his bed when I turn around.

Last night I was eating ice cream and did what I always do, I called for him to join me.

It is so hard trying to adjust to him being gone. Hopefully the pain and loneliness will subside.

Things have been really stressful around here. My poor little baby, Tucker, is sick and that takes all my thoughts and energy worrying about him.

I finally realized I needed to at least try to create....something.

I found some wood scraps in the garage, paneling left over from our bathroom remodel of 2 years ago. I had hubby cut it into usable pieces and I sat myself down at my desk.

The first one is a house shape. It is about 3 1/2 inches tall (plus wire hanger). I painted it off white and coated it with Porcelain Crackle. When the crackle had dried, I rubbed on some Walnut Distress ink and then wiped off the excess. When you get really close you can see the cracks. Unfortunately, my macro isn't working right so I couldn't get that close. I guess I need to dig out my bigger camera and charge up those batteries!

The woman came from the Stage Beauties CD from enchantedmercantile.com The music (Oxford Impression) was stamped in black permanent ink and rubbed off a bit before it was completely dry. The typewriter key font is from Nostalgiques.

I added the wire and buttons both as a hanger and as a fun addition.

This one is about 4 1/2 inches tall (plus wire hanger). The Chinese writing is from an old newspaper. I used Mod Podge to glue it down and then washed red acrylics over the whole thing. When that had dried, I rubbed Walnut Distress ink all over rubbing some off in places. The bamboo is stamped with chalk ink. The "stamp" and cancellation were also stamped with chalk inks. The women are from another CD from Enchanted Mercantile, Vintage Ephemera Vol.1.

This one took me a lot longer as I kept changing my mind about what I wanted but the farther along I got the more I liked it. There is even a little sparkle, I tried out my Glimmer Mists before I added the women. It is very subtle and hardly noticeable until you tilt it just the right way LOL

Learning Cake Decorating

I have wanted to learn cake decorating for a long time. Who wouldn't want to be able to make all those gorgeous (and edible) flowers?!

My mom, knowing this about me, gave me all kinds of goodies to get me started on my way. Thanks Mom!!!!

So, this past weekend, I finally got up the nerve to start. I was going to just practice on a plain vinyl cutting board but hubby said, "No, if you are making things with icing, then they are edible and we are going to eat them". Hmm

Thus, I had to back up and make cupcakes first LOL

I thought I would start out simple...I chose to try the shell border. I did pretty good with this. I mean, how big of a border can you have on a cupcake? LOL

After several bordered cupcakes, I decided I was ready to move on. Keeping the same tip...did I mention I am lazy and don't like to get my hands messy?...I tried my hand at rosettes.

Next came leaves. Who has flowers without leaves? Well, possibly me LOL I finally got the hang of getting the leaf shape BUT all my leaves have 2 tips...not the traditional tree-type single tip. Guess I need to practice more.....or tell eveyone that I pruned before they arrived!

Mary, who knows how to decorate cakes, is probably going to read this blog and die laughing! LOL

Mickey Birthday Card

This week my nephew turned 16 and being right on top of things like I usually am, I just finished making his card. Oh well, better late than never. LOL

Santa brought me the Mickey and Friends cartridge for my Cricut and I thought it would be fun to make a Mickey birthday card.

I made Mickey at the 4" setting. I then used the George cartridge for the numbers at 2.5". The diamond background is a stamp from Cards n Stamps stamped with Dark Peony Colorbox Chalk ink. I had a blast making this card. It was fun to add each piece and see Mickey come to life!

Here is a close-up of Mickey. Isn't he cute?

This is the inside. The car is called ToonCar from the Mickey cartridge, cut at 3" setting. I had originally planned on a red car but I had this metallic black cardstock on my shelf and thought it would make a very cool car. I was right. :-) So, we have a sleek black car with maroon seats....not bad, huh?! The sign post is also from Mickey. There are so many fun elements on that cartridge, more than just the characters!

Check out this car close up! It really does have a sheen to it!

Monday, I mail off the card, he should get it by Thursday and being a 16 year old boy, it will be in the trash by Friday LOL Oh well! Such is life. :-)

Altered Ancestors

A friend of mine is hosting an altered cabinet card swap in the BadBaby yahoo group.

The theme is "My Silly and Serious Ancestors, Real or Not"

This is NOT one of my ancestors but it IS one of my husband's. It is his great grandfather Frederick Furry, he was a baby when his parents made the trip across the country in a covered wagon.

Maybe it was those early memories of being rocked to sleep in a Prairie Schooner that created those pirate dreams LOL

So, here is my creation for the swap, I hope Grandpa Fred approves. :-)

Happy New Year!

So, here we are in 2009! I am truly hoping and praying it is better than 2008!!!!!!!

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't been posting for a while. It was 2 weeks into November before I even remembered to change my header and get rid of that Thanksgiving turkey! LOL Guess I better get on the ball and get that tree taken down! :-)

I haven't been doing much art-wise. I spent most of December baking and shopping (as it should be LOL) I did however get one project done. I completed True Colors journal #3. The theme was Cool Blues and White (with one accent color if you want).

Since it was December AND we actually had snow on the ground for a couple days, I did a winter scene. I love this background paper! I found it in a clearance bin last summer and now I wish I had bought more as I used both pieces for this project. This book is larger than most, it is 12x12! Nice to get to work on a larger format for a change but I still like the small books better. :-)

First I painted the snow on the ground using acrylic paints, I did both pages at the same time so the snow would line up right. Next I paint the tree onto the background paper. I used a large fabric painting brush and pounced the tree onto the paper. After the tree was dry, I added snowflake eyelets all around with a large pewter snowflake for a tree topper. Then I glued the page into the book.

Next, I worked on the right hand page. I wanted to be able to add some sort of writing to that page. I wrote a little poem (poetry is NOT my strong suite!) and then dry-brushed on some large snowballs to hold the words. I used a fine line sharpie for all the writing.. Again, once all the paint was dry, I added more snowflake eyelets. Then I glued down that page into the book.

Finally I did some journaling across the bottom of the pages.....all done!

You can see the eyelets better in this close up of the left page.

Here you can read my attempt at poetry LOL

More True Colors

I worked on my second True Colors journal today.

This one made me step WAY outside my comfort zone, using colors I rarely, if ever even think about. The theme? Lime Green, Teal/Aqua and Chocolate Brown. This was very tough!

I sat with the book lying in my lap for hours. I kept staring at the colors and trying to mentally compose. I was a complete blank.

Then, it was very late, I was very tired, and a commercial came on TV. Or at least I think it was a commercial but maybe it was a dream since I haven't seen it since AND I have no idea what they were selling. But it was dancing, lime green pears....Ok, maybe is WAS a dream LOL

I found an awesome green paper with some teal dry-brushing in spots. It was a muted version of the lime green but with the "antiquing" that is also part of the design it sort of incorporated all the colors. This became my background for the left page.

I have really been in a painting mood and with paint I can create any color I need. I painted the pear using acrylics.

Now for the right page. I have had the background paper for quite some time. It reminds me of an old book cover. It also has muted teals and went very well with the lime. The lower portion is actually the back of some really odd colored Christmas paper LOL It is sort of like peeling paint but in just a small portion, made the perfect floor. Plus, the under color of "paint" was a light green.

Using clip art cds, I created the doll with the pear costume. And also found her fellow party-goers.

For all the uncertainty that I went through, I have to say that I really like the final outcome. I hope Anne does as well.

Project in the Works

My friend Pam saw a very neat project online. It was a handmade book and matching tote. They had little painted girls on the fronts.

I have no book making experience but Pam has made tons!

My forte is painting! So, she is making the books and I painted the little girls.

The ones with plain backgrounds were my first attempts.
I couldn't make little animals without including Tucker! Isn't he the cutest little cat ever? Of course, that is definitely not me LOL I am not even close to blond!