Sometimes I surprise myself

It seems like it has been ages since I have been here but it really was just a month ago. (which is much longer than I like but...)

I felt like I just hadn't done anything so why bother dropping in and yet when I downloaded the pictures from my camera (I take pics as I work and/or complete things) I found 38 photos! Don't worry, I am not going to post ALL of them on here.....just a lot of them lol

I have been all over the place with my projects these past weeks. Partially due to new supplies (Gelli Plates and Gelatos) and partially due to missing Kitty and stress from work. I don't seem to stay very focused but obviously I was more focused than I realized HaHa

I am still in LOVE with Gelatos! How can you not be in love with paints that give you such rich and luscious color?

Here is a journal page that I have been working on when ever the mood strikes. I don't know if it is done yet but I love how it looks.

I have not Photoshopped this picture. The colors really are that rich and vibrant! And they blend so easily with just your finger and a dab of water!

I love this stamp. He comes from Abracadabra. It is hard to tell but I rubbed a little color under him as a shadow. I ended up rubbing on a bit more after the photo but was too lazy to grab my camera again. Shame on me.

I am having a blast experimenting with Gel Medium as well. This photo depicts the upper right corner, the upper left and the bottom right.
In the upper right I stamped first then applied the Gel Medium so it looks like you are looking through bubbles at the stamp image. The upper left I used the lighter blues and teals then added the gel and went over it with pinks and darker blues so the lighter colors show in the squares. I did the same on the bottom right with greens and yellows and then orange over top. I love seeing the bottom layers of color through the gel shapes.

But fear not, I have not abandoned my Explore lol

Our anniversary is coming up and I wanted a cool card for Hubby.
This comes from the SVG Cuts Hearts Aflame set.
Isn't that matchbook just the cutest?!
I used the Heartstrings paper pack from Close To My Heart. Everything but the yellows came from that set. Such gorgeous papers. I had purchased 2 packs and they are now gone and I am wishing I had bought more!

Here is what I made with the rest of the papers.

 

It is a Waterfall Folio. I plan on using it as a mini scrapbook for our mini getaway. I usually do some sort of scrapbook for our anniversary trips but since last years book is only about half done I figured I better set up something super easy to do for this year (having 2 books going is not something I want to deal with lol)

You can watch the tutorial for the folio here. They are super easy and make great gifts.


And of course, I am still using my Gelli Plates at least a couple times a week. I find it to be very relaxing after a stressful day at work.
I will not bore you with pictures of the tons of prints I have made. You're welcome. LOL

But I wanted to share a before picture with you.

I printed a couple tags.

Now obviously I knew you could print on tags. You can print on pretty much anything you want lol  But I wanted to see if I would like printed tags and if they would inspire me to make anything with them.

I have to say, the springtime ideas are flying around my head already for the green one and I know the red one will become some fabulous project for fall or Halloween.

Stay tuned for after pictures....eventually.  :-)

And lastly.....yeah yeah I am finally getting toward the end. :-)

I joined a swap. I haven't swapped with any groups in a long time. The last few times were not good experiences and resulted in me spending lots of time creating wonderful projects just to have the people I was swapping with keep my stuff and never send anything back. It made me swear I would never swap again.

BUT the BadBabies are back and swapping again! I am so excited! I have missed those people!!!

I signed up for an Arched ATC swap. All the cards have to be Arch shaped. Now being the bad baby that I am I took some leeway with the 'arch' shape lol

I had to make 6 cards, I ended up making 7 because I decided to keep one of them lol

 
I used a Gelli print for the interior of her head. See, I actually use my prints. :-)

 
Ha! Look at that! Another Gelli print! AND the houses are masks I used in one of my prints. I liked how they turned out better than I liked the print lol

 
Back to my roots....Asian stamping. I love this stamp, she comes from Stamp Magick. The kanji says Health.

 
This dragonfly is from UpTown Stamps. The lettering is from the CTMH Curlicue Alphabet D1630. The background is colored with Gelatos.

And looky there! Another Gelli print. I cut it into strips to make the nest. The bird is from the Cricut Winter Frolic cartridge. I cut him in white cardstock and then painted him.

All the 'arch' shapes were cut with my Explore from various cartridges.

And lastly, #7, the one I decided to keep.

Minnie is from the Nifty Fifties cart. I cut her in black and then painted on her white features. The Explore actually cut the eyes! I am still amazed at how intricate this thing can cut. Those eyes are less than a 1/16" of an inch tall!
The pillow is from Create a Critter.
She is decked out with rhinestones on her crown and collar. :-)

She thinks she is so regal.

This is the picture I put on the back of the ATC with the caption "As we see her". 
My crazy girl! :-)

Well, that wraps it up for this post. If you made it this far...Thank you!

And if you didn't well then I guess you missed out lol

Wishing everyone a wonderful week and Happy Spring!!!

Gelli & Gelatos

I am the first to admit that I don't usually jump on the latest art and crafting trends....although I do usually know about them. But this past week I heard about a product that I had never seen before and yet, from what I have gathered, it has been around for a little while.

Gelatos! Have you seen these things? If you love color (and who doesn't????) You are going to want these!

They are luscious, vibrant watercolors in wonderful little lipstick tubes.
They are smooth and creamy and blend easily with your fingers or you can add water and get the full watercolor effect. I fell in love just looking at them online! You can read all about them here. I ordered the full set of 28 colors from Amazon. But couldn't wait for them to come so I ran to the local art store (literally just 2 blocks away lol) and bought the Tropical set (which is not part of the full 28 set)

I could not wait to play!!!

My first foray into Gelato land is not my best work BUT I loved how the Gelatos performed.

This was a page from my art journal. I have no clue what I was thinking as I started it in 2013. It was just brown. It appeared to be layers of papers and tissue papers and maybe some masking tape which then was covered with antiquing gel. Like I said, brown. Blah.

I first added some modeling paste using a stencil. After it dried I began coloring on Gelatos (using only the Tropical set of Snow Cone, Margarita Mix, Raspberry and Watermelon). You can color over the modeling paste, rub with your fingers to blend then lift the color from the paste using baby wipes. I stamped the woman from Hampton Art. The stamp set doesn't have a name on it but it is some sort of Paris fashion set. I then added detail color to her with the Gelatos using a tiny brush and a touch of water.

I knew it needed something so I walked away for a couple days.....so hard to do when you are dying to play with your new toys!

I came back when my full set of colors arrived. Look how rich these colors are!!!
I began adding more layers of color. Gorgeous rich Grape, luscious Lemon, rich Red Cherry, beautiful Spearmint. They brought the entire page to life.

I then added the stamping. I stamped the birds onto tissue paper then glued them down with Mod Podge. After that dried, I blended more Gelatos over the edges of the tissue to settle it into the page.
Lastly I stamped the sentiment. Both stamps are from Tim Holtz Lost and Found set.

If you look closely you can see the tissue paper with the birds but if you didn't know to look I doubt you would notice.

So, now I needed to make more!

I began this page using the drip technique. I found a great video on YouTube. How did we ever survive without YouTube???
The drips turned out great but were very pastel and so I had to walk away and decide what direction I really wanted to go.
I added some layers of acrylic and some papers. Still not happy. I added some stenciling. Getting better. I then added some gel medium via stenciling. Now this was getting fun.

Then came more Gelatos! I couldn't tell you exactly what colors I used. I do know that I used Snow Cone (the turquoise you see in the bottom left. It is also the bottom layer in the upper left which then had yellow applied over top to create that lovely spring green. The purple is either Grape or Raspberry and believe it or not I did not use any red to create that fabulous orange. It was all yellows and varying shades of pinks. I buffed some of the color off the gel medium circles using a baby wipe and then used Prismacolor pencils to make drop shadows. I blended them slightly with a blending stump.
I am not sure if this is done yet or not. I am really loving how it looks right now so I want to hold off for a while.

And now for a product I knew existed but never thought I would be interested in.....Gelli Plates.

You know something? Pinterest is costing me a fortune! LOL  I saw some cool art journal pages on Pinterest and the artist had used Gelli prints as their backgrounds which of course sent me off investigating. I knew mono printing and I had heard of Gelli Plates but had not really LOOKED at them. Big mistake. Now I own the 3x5, the 5x7 and the 8x10 is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday. (oh yeah, did I ever tell you that I cannot buy just one of something? lol)

I began by playing with the 3x5. My thought process was.....it will take less paint so less waste as I figure this out AND I literally have 100s of blank 4x6 index cards. I think there are 6 unopened packages of them on the shelf (see, can't buy just 1).

My very first Gelli print. Well actually this was the ghost print after my first gel print. I found a cool resist technique online using gel medium. I used Gelatos as my color over the top.
This was a stencil of various sized circles. I thought it was cool how it ended up with what looks like bubbles with reflections so I immediately thought....Fish.

Sorry, not a great quality photo (I took it with my ipad).
The fish are Fred B Mullett. Silver Salmon facing right. Menpachi facing left.
I rubbed on Gelatos to color the fish, added some seaweed cut on my Cricut Explore and pounced on some sand using acrylic paints.

Still more 3x5s. I created some tools by cutting up some craft foam with decorative scissors. I used one to create the squiggles on the 2 upper left prints.
I embossed some cardstock and then pressed the embossed sheet onto the plate to obtain the cool designs on the other prints.

I love this. Very basic yet very vibrant.

The colors got muddy in the middle but you can see all the clockworks from the embossed sheet.

And I did some experimenting with the 5x7.

I forgot to take a picture of this one before I began embellishing. It was pretty blah and I set it aside thinking it really needed 'something'.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit down, I sat at my desk, pulled out this print and was thinking I just wanted to splatter, layer and make a mess all over it to let out some of my frustration. And then throw it away. I didn't like the print anyway so it would be a good way to vent.

I grabbed the chicken wire stamp and stamped it in white pigment ink. Well duh. pigment ink is NEVER going to dry when stamped over acrylic paint so I had to either rub it off or heat emboss. I chose clear embossing powder so that it would remain white. I then stamped again in CTMH New England Ivy. I added the post mark in the upper left from Tim Holtz French Market set. I used StazOn jet black. It was odd, it did not want to stick and I had to stamp it a couple times before I got a print.

It still needed something and I still needed to work out some frustration so out came the Gelatos. I rubbed in some red, pink, turquoise and green. The more color I added the better I felt and the better I liked this print.

Now, instead of being my least favorite it is my most favorite. My next decision is "What do I do with it?" lol

Here is another 5x7. I almost forgot to take a pic again. As you can see I was already cutting before I remembered lol

I wanted to try combining my Cricut with my printing.

Because of the metallic gold, these were difficult to get a decent photo.

I love how they turned out. They will look great on a card or journal page. I love being able to combine lots of different art techniques and tools (and then I can justify owning all this stuff lol)

Sorry it has been so long since my last post and that this post is so long.

It has been a pretty rough past few weeks.
Our cat, Kitty, past away this past Thursday. He has been battling cancer since right before Thanksgiving. It has been very difficult to watch. Poor little guy wasted away from a healthy, feisty 12 pound boy to a frail little 8 pound baby in just a couple months.

But now the battle is over and he is at peace. The hard part is that we are now left trying to fill the void in our hearts.

Can you believe it?

January is almost over! It feels like Christmas was 6 months ago instead of just one.

Time seems to be flying by and I seem to be getting nothing done!

Let's start this post out with some great news!

Congratulations to The Ohio State University Buckeyes on winning their eighth (yes that is 8th!) national championship!!!

Go Bucks!!!!!

As a proud alumni I felt the need to add something extra to my work environment (I already have a Brutus cut-out....see it below and a little sock monkey wearing an OSU hoodie).

I created this glass block for my work desk. I love how it turned out.
I frosted the block first with Amour Etch and then added the vinyl.
It is lit with a single C7 bulb. I used one of the cords you use to light those ceramic houses/villages at Christmas. They work great in these blocks. They don't get too hot and they put out just the right amount of light. This picture was taken when I had in a clear bulb, I switched it out for a frosted one when I put the block on my desk. It has a very soft glow with no glare.

And here is the Brutus I made last summer. He was the first SVG I ever created. (I don't like to start small lol) He lives on the bulletin board above my desk and is about 6 or 7 inches tall.

And have you heard the rumor? Valentine's day is almost here!

I made a card for my parents. I don't usually do that but I have a couple things I need to send them and thought What the Heck lol

I used Anna Griffin's Rosa embossing folder to emboss the card base and her Lovely Letterpress stamp set for the text. The roses cut-out was an image from one of my clipart CDs and I used the Print Then Cut feature on the Cricut Explore to print and cut it. I love not having to hand cut these things anymore!

And lastly, SVG Cuts has a new kit! It just came out this week. It is called Hearts Aflame and right now you can get it free with a $9.98 purchase.
It has adorable box cards for Valentine's Day or you can change the colors and use them for any time.

I used the Makeup Bag card to make a birthday card for my niece.

 

It is hard to see all the details and items in the photos but there is lipstick, mascara and a compact that opens and closes and has a mirror in the top.

The Happy Birthday stamp is from CTMH Just to Say set #D1629.

And then you have the sunglasses. I used Crystal Lacquer to make the lenses shiny.

I think it is adorable and I hope she likes it. But you never know. Well, I never know. I only hear from my Mom when she get's a card. No one else in my family ever acknowledges that they received them or liked them. I don't know if it is because they just expect homemade cards or what.

Am I alone? Am I the only one that sometimes thinks.....this is so cute and no one will appreciate it so maybe I should just hang on to this cute card and go buy them a card at the dollar store?

Oh well, I will mail it. lol

Hope you have a great week. Stay warm if it is cold and snowy where you are. Use this snowbound time to create!

Happy New Year!

2014 was a pretty good year for me so 2015 has a lot to live up to. Here's hoping for a great year!

But before we get into what's new, let me share a couple things that I did during the Christmas holidays.

I finally made the Christmas card for hubby (I was literally down to the wire lol)

I stamped this gorgeous cardinal from the CTMH B1403 To You and Yours set. I Colored him with watercolor pencils on a Cricut cut. I then cut a few more layers to go under him.

 

Here is the finished card.  I embossed the yellow layer with one of the folders from Anna Griffin's Joyful Expressions set.

And just a few days before Christmas SVG Cuts released a new kit. It was so adorable that I had to make a couple of the items.

Isn't this just the cutest little gingerbread boy? And he is a box! How cool is that?
He is from the Santa's Sweets kit AND the kit is still free! What an awesome gift from the great people at SVG Cuts! Here is the link so you can get your free kit before they switch it back to $6.99.

This is the Candy Cane house from the same kit. I didn't want to use it for candy canes so I removed the holes in the roof and cut a hole in the back to insert a tea light. It made an adorable decoration on the coffee table over the holidays.

And lastly, digi-playground has been having a sale (psst it is still going on) and I picked up this adorable barrel purse file. I reduced the file size so that I could cut it on a 12x12 mat and the purse is still about 4x7 and that is not including the handles. I have real purses that I carry that are this size lol  When I find some 12x24 paper I will make the full size purse....and possibly carry it around!

And now we can move into 2015!

I have been having crafting withdrawals since Christmas. Today was the first day since Dec 24 that I have been able to make anything. It was really starting to drive me nuts!

I wanted to make a couple Valentines. And then I got this idea. I think it was a good one but I tend to not always be in step with the rest of the world lol

I have a collection of vintage Valentines. Ones from the 50s and 60s. You know, the ones with the adorable graphics and corny sayings we got back in school....not the lame cartoon character and super hero ones of today that seem more like advertisements than sentiments.

Anyway, I got the idea to take those cards and try to recreate them in a more modern format. They make a great jump start for my brain lol

Here is the original...

And here is my remake...

The bee and hive are from Create a Critter. The honeycomb embossing folder is from CTMH.

Here is another original...

And my take on it...

The dancers, records and player are all from Nifty Fifties.

I may do a few more of these. I had a blast searching for images and playing around.

I have one more card to share today. I was on pinterest last night and saw a card. The original artist created it using the Stampin Up! owl punch...or so she said. I haven't bought any punches in decades and none of them are bigger than maybe an inch. You remember them, tiny leaves, flowers, hearts. They basically make confetti lol

Anyway, I ramble lol  I thought the card was adorable so into Cricut design space I went and found lots of owl cuts.

The pink owl is from Create a Critter 2. The blue one hails from Hoot n Holler. His branch is from Create a Critter. I embossed the front with Darice's woodgrain folder. The sentiment inside says " 'Owl' always love you"

So now that we have gotten the new year under way let's hope it continues with lots of crafting and lots of blessings!

The most wonderful time of the year

I love Christmas! The lights, the music, the decorations. People are nicer, they smile more, they greet you with a pleasant Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. The whole season fills me with happiness.

I made a promise to myself this year that I was not going to stress during the holidays. I would take each day as it came and get done what I could and just enjoy it.

I am happy to say that it worked!

My cards were mailed on December 1.
My shopping is done.
Everything that needs to be shipped is wrapped and packed and sitting by the door to go out tomorrow.
My tree went up last night.
My house has been decorated since the weekend after Thanksgiving (inside and out).

The only things left on my list are to bake the Russian Tea Ball cookies my husband loves and to make the Chex Party mix. Oh yeah, and make a Christmas card for my husband (let's hope I don't forget that one lol)

With 10 days left to do them, I think I am in very good shape! :-)

I hope everyone else is fairing as well as I am this year.

AND....I made a few things over the past couple weeks. I make sure I get lots of art room time. I think that makes a huge difference in my stress levels. :-)

When decorating the inside of my house, I had to put away my Autumn glass block and wanted a to replace it with a Winter one. I searched on etsy to see if I could find a file that jumped out at me (nothing I put together from Design Space was really rocking my socks).

I found SparkelDigitalDesign. She has lots of wonderful glass block designs. I chose this one. I had planned on using navy blue but didn't have enough so opted for dark red. I love how it turned out.

I think it is adorable and fits in with my decorating style, of vintage and antique toys, really well.
She offers a deal of buy 3 designs get 1 free so I see some shopping in my future. :-)

Vinyl is an addicting thing. You start seeing places all over your house that could use a little bit of sprucing up or just a touch of whimsy.
Vinyl also makes a very nice stencil.

I used my Explore to cut out vinyl stencils for use with Amour Etch.

I always regretted not buying the glasses that matched my Christmas dishes. Each year for Christmas I have to use my everyday glasses (or a set of maroon wine glasses...don't ask).
I was in Dollar Tree and they have glasses.....green glasses.....for Christmas.
I light bulb went off and I now have a set of green glasses that look beautiful with my dishes.

Each glass is etched with a different image. (I etched 4 but only had 2 done at the time I took the picture) I wanted them all etched but thought having them all the same would be boring. Besides, my dishes are fun not serious with a big Christmas tree and train and gifts (Pfaltzgraph Christmas Heritage) So why shouldn't my glasses be fun too?

The images are from Anna Griffin's Christmas Kitsch cartridge. (I will try to remember to get a picture of the other 2 lol)

And finally, I finished up my last Christmas present on Friday night.

My mom collects little boxes. All types and shapes and styles. I search for cute and different ones for her all the time. I don't think that I have ever made one for her. Although she has been collecting them for over 30 years so I probably have made her at least one or two over the years but cannot remember lol

I took an old mint tin, lightly sanded it then sprayed it with Rust-Oleum's white Clean Metal Primer.
I sponged alcohol inks on the edges to create a nice finish.

Does this door make you want to look inside? I hope so because this is the front of the tin.
I used the Explore Print Then Cut to make the door. I added a fancy glass bead brad for the door knob and mounted the door on chip board so it stands out a bit.
I found a stone wall image online and used that for my background on the front and back of the box.
I used Distress Inks (Tea Dye and Walnut Stain) to darken the edges.

This is the back. I added the little dandelion growing at the bottom. It leaves no hint of what might be inside.

Everything inside was cut with the Explore, including the blue background pieces. I wish I had thought to measure and cut them this way with my first tin. It was such a pain trying to get a good fit just eye-balling it!

There is a lovely rose trellis on the left. I used a grid background cut from the CTMH Artbooking cartridge.
The roses came from Picturesque.

One the right we have gorgeous sunflowers and fuchsia tulips from Walk In My Garden. The purple tulips are from Create a Critter.
There is a little white picket fence separating the sunflowers from the tulips. The full image has a rooster sitting on the fence. I used the slice feature to remove him. The fence is from Wall Décor & More.
And finally there is grass growing behind the fence from CTMH Artbooking.

I needle felted the bunny using some tan alpaca fleece with little bits of merino for his tummy, nose and eyes. He looks very happy in his flower garden home.

I hope she likes it. I finished it Friday night and packed it up Saturday morning. I must have gone and opened that little tin a dozen times to take 'one last look'. I finally kissed the bunny good-bye and wrapped it up. :-)

Just in case I don't get back here beforehand...




Merry Christmas to you all and happy crafting in the New Year!