For One Moment - Little Snippets of my Life and Art...

Altered Metal Art Pearl Ex Pigments, Gold UTEE, Metallic Rub-on, Perfect fx mica flakes, self-adhesive foil tape, glass and metal beads, wire, wire window screening, florist tape, Japanese papers mounted to a piece of velvet mat board and edged in Krylon Gold pen.

November - Autumn Greetings Took some time to play yesterday and completed my November Tag for Tim Holtz   12 Tags of 2012 .  Had to wait until today, so that I could photograph it in the daytime.  I don't have the Autumn Gatherings Die so I substituted with the Tattered Floral Garland. I decided to use a bit of dried floral instead of a muse token and burlap.  I think I may go back and hang something from the top of it...but haven't figured out what yet. For all my friends here in the United States, I want to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Art Journal On Monday nights  after Boy Scouts I like to come home and join Tracy Weinzapfel and friends in a chat called Mixed Media Mondays.  Tracy always does a journal page LIVE on-line during the chat, and most of the time I dabble in my art journal at the same time.  Some times I follow along with her theme and other times my muse leads me in a different direction.    Here are a couple more pages from my journal I'd like to share.  The background is created with Gelatos by Faber Castell.  You can find out more about them at Design Memory Craft.   They are soft and creamy and the colors are super rich.  I just love working with them!   For these pages I also have used rub-on, Copic markers, rubber stamps and oil pastels.  If it is within reach it is fair game.   Well...enjoy!! I'm headed off to work!!   Be Such...   Heart and Soul    

Gelato Play in my Art Journal We are feeling a bit of cooler weather and fall breezes here in central Florida, which we don't have very often.  We usually go straight from HOT to our version of cold.  We are all enjoying our beautiful Mini-Fall and I thought I'd do a little tribute page in my art journal. Golden Gesso and Ground to prep the paper. Faber-Castell Gelatos for a pretty and soft blended background and for coloring the leaves. I used Ranger Archival Black for stamping the leaves. The leaf stamp is one that I carved using a Speedball carving block and tools about 15 years ago.  I found it in my stash and pulled it to play! Journaling printed on watercolor paper with my injet printer and distressed with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and glued to my journal and coated with Glossy Accents. Added little dew drops to the leaves with Glossy Accents. Happy Fall Everyone!!

Hope Blooms Mixed Media Mondays with Tracy Weinzapfel Studios Acrylic on Gesso Art Journal page. I used paper cut flowers from an old song book, rub-ons and sticker letters along with a tiny splatter stamp. There are little white affirmations scattered across the page that you have to look close to find.  I used black half pearls for the flower centers. Lots of dabbing with a baby wipe and spritzing with the water bottle and drying with the heat gun. Once I finished I sealed it all over with a light coat of PPA matte. The picture doesn't do it justice because as usual it is 11 pm and I am taking pictures under those home fluorescent lights that make everything look funky.

October Tag Tim Holtz posted his October Tag for the 12 Tags of 2012 ealier this week and it was a fun Halloween tag with lots of sparkle and fun spiders!   I didn't have any printed tissue wrap, so I created my own by stamping on white tissue paper. I used some regular acrylic paints to paint up the background and blotted with baby wipes to soften the look like Tim did with his Paint Daubers and it worked like a charm!   I dug through my stamps and found a fun Martha Stewart set with spiderwebs and spiders that worked perfectly!! Then I misted the whole tag with Perfect Pearls.   The word Boo and the Skull and Crossbones are from grungeboard packs and I  used Studio G Glitter Glue to give the word and skull a bit of sparkle.   The October calendar is from the Idea-ology Lost and Found Sticker pack.   The big sparkly spider and the little glittery bat were left over from when I made my riveted met...

A Fun-Filled Weekend I took four classes with Tim Holtz  at She Scrapbooks in the Villages in Lady Lake, Florida last weekend.  It was a fun filled weekend and here's a few photo highlights from the weekend! I'll be back this weekend to edit the post and give a few more hightlights.  In the meantime I wanted to get some of my pictures posted.

Classes with Tim Holtz at She Scrapbooks   Had tons of fun this weekend at She Scrapbooks in the Villages!  Here's just a sneak peak of some of the projects we worked on and the fun we had.  I have to head off to work in a few, so I'll have to do another post later with more details and pictures.    

Find Your Voice Took some time to play along with Tracy  for Monday Night's Journal Madness.  I decided to jump right in and not think about it...and just DO!!! I didn't use the same mediums as she did, and I didn't have any flowers to glue on the page, so I doodled them in instead. Here's a quick shot with my phone, cause I've got to get my chores done and myself off to bed. Supplies Used: Gelatos Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels Liquid Paper Correction Pen Ribbon Glossy Accents Black Sharpie (for the writing).  ...cause I couldn't find anything else that didn't want to smear or not write on the oil pastels.  

"Nevermore"   I've neglected my poor blog terribly!  ...but I really haven't had much time at my art desk at all for the last couple of months.  I saw Tim Holtz's September tag and knew I HAD to play!  ...only my project sort of outgrew my little tag!     I used 7 Gypsies hinges and Tim Holtz Hitch Post for the doorknob.   There is a little raven on the top and another one on his shoulder.   Just a few dusty cobwebs...   ...and some glittery magic spiders.

Taking Time Out to Play Haven't spent much time at my art desk the last couple of weeks.   Blew my knee out last Sunday and can't bend my knee, so it hasn't been very comfortable to sit and play.   Today though, I couldn't take it anymore and had to do SOMETHING, so I tried making paper tea roses with my Tim Holtz pinecone die.    After managing to make two of them, I finally gave up and did something I could do sitting down  and not have to get up and down to my Vagabond, hot glue gun, etc.  I decided to play in Photoshop for a while and my creative muse was quite happy! This first one is a combination of paper and digital elements.   I started off with a scanned card base using the Umbrella Man die and some sheet music.   I pulled it into Photoshop and added digital elements and brushwork.   All the color and "stamping" were added in Photoshop.    The last two are all digital work - being a combi...

Live, Love, Laugh Didn't feel like pulling out my inks and paints this week, so I decided to do a little playing in Photoshop instead.  Lots and lots of layers, brushes and colors. Now if I could just get my inks to look like this on paper, I'd be a happy camper!!  

Alcohol Inks I've been playing with Alcohol Inks the last couple of days trying to come up with something to enter for Tim's 12 Tags of 2012 for July .  It's been a long while since I played with them very much, and I'm finding I don't care for it as much as I used to.  I've always had a hard time working with glossy cardstock and didn't find it any easier this time around. But I did manage to come up with one that I like pretty well, so I went with it.  The background paper is Kromekote and I used Adirondack Inks in several colors and gave them a blast of canned air.  The images are from Stamp Camp and are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I colored the butterfly with Copic Markers and layered it on Eggplant cardstock.  I added a few dotty trails by hand using a Pitt India Ink pen.  I thought it was busy enough as it is, so I didn't add any embelishments to it.  So, now I'm off to post it on Tim's blog and then ...

My poor little neglected Blog!!  It's been quite a while since I've had the time to sit down and do a post. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks and though I've had a little bit of time to play, I really haven't had the energy to do a lot. I helped out at Stampfest in Orlando a couple of weeks ago, and I got some new images from Stamp Cam p to play with, and here are a couple of them.  Please excuse the poor images, as I did them at the show and I took the pictures with my phone before giving them to Mary Kay. The birdcage one is A2 card size and the Umbrella Men card is actually an ATC. I'll be posting more, so be sure and check back soon! THEN for I was lucky enough to win the Stamper's Anonymous Autumn Blueprints set which is part of their new releases for CHA on Tim's blog this past week.  This set and the other Blueprint sets are designed by Mario Rossi's son, Mario III.  They are awesome...so you should check them out!! The...

 Tissue Wrap Flower - Challenge 10 I ended up pushing the deadline right up to the very end this week.  Earlier this week I just wasn't feeling very creative...plus I was just too tired in the evenings to dig out my inks and stamps. So...I had no WOYWW shot yesterday, as it was still clean and tidy after picking up and putting away after last weeks playtime. This week's challenge is Challenge #10 at Studio L3   the Tissue Wrap Flower and is found on page 37 of Tim Holtz's book (Compendium of Curiosities Volume II). http://www.zibbet.com/TheFunkieJunkie will be giving a $25 gift certificate to their shop to one lucky randomly selected participant in this week's challenge! The flower is actually pink and sparkly as I sprayed it with Pink Grapefruit Radiant Rain shimmering mist.  The center has Apricot mica flakes and as usual they didn't photograph very well.  Here's a few Behind the Scenes shots.... ...

Waited this Morning....now Waiting until September Had a great time while I waited in line at She Scrapbooks this morning with a great bunch of Tim Holtz Groupies.  We were all signing up for classes with Tim in September.  So now that we've signed up...we wait some more! Oh and it wouldn't be complet without a picture of our bouncer.  Here's Chris making sure we knew what the rules were.  LOL it was a riot!!

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? - 158 So...What's on Your Workdesk this Wednesday?  I just found this great site Stamping Ground where artists from all over share a link to what's on their workdesk on Wednesday! You should check it if you like pages of yummy inspiration!! My desk is actually fairly clean as I have just finished one project and had cleaned up a bit before starting the next one.  In the middle there's a tag that I just completed for Tim's 12 Tags of 2012  and some yummy postcards received this week from an exchange group I am in.  What you can't see is that to the right of me is my heatgun along with stacks of inkpads and bottles of sprays.  To the left are stackable drawers that are filled with adhesives, stamps and trinkets.  I'm not even going to try and describe what is below my desk and behind me.  Maybe I'll share it someday when I get it a better organized.  LOL!!!  Next up is to get ...

June - Saartje It was a stormy evening and thankfully I had finished all my laundry ealier in the day, so I decided to spend my evening at my art desk. I've spent a few minutes each day for the last several days looking for JUST the right picture to use on my June tag for Tim Holtz's - 12 Tags of 2012 . I had even printed out a couple of photographs and attempted to tint them with the Distress Inkpad like Tim shows on his blog. It just wasn't working for me.  No matter how I did it, it just looked so fake and definitely NOT what I was going for. So today I decided to take the digital way out and used Lightroom and Photoshop to tint the photo and now I'm a happy camper! I tinted her dress a very pale pink and her hair a pale brown but I couldn't get the lighting right so that the pink would show up. Again I am taking pictures late and night instead of the daytime and the light was bouncing off the photo paper making it hard to get it just ri...

 Pocket Watch - Challenge #9  Pulled out my trinket boxes and had fun digging through them to find just the right things for Challenge #9 at Studio L3 . This week is the Pocket Watch and is found on page 35 of Tim Holtz's book  (Compendium of Curiosities Volume II). Simon Says Stamp will be giving a $25 gift certificate to their shop to one lucky randomly selected participant in this week's challenge! I found so many kewl things that I had a hard time deciding just which ones to use. I decided to go with a simple and elegant design for this one as I know I'll be making several other tiny works of art so I can swap them out when I want something different. I'll be putting it on a chain or pretty ribbon to wear as a necklace. Be sure to check out Tim's book and see what fun stuff he does. We will be working out way through the techniques in a random order chosen by Linda at Studio L3 and we woul...

What a way to end a day... My oldest daughter has braces and can't eat anything crunchy so I thought I'd be nice and go to the grocery store and get her some ice cream. WELL...I am less than a mile from the house and a tree limb decides to fall off a tree onto my van just as I am going under it. It's been raining for the last few days and I guess the old limb just couldn't hold the weight of the wet moss anymore. I could o nly swerve just so much as there was someone in the other lane, and I sure didn't want a head on!! See the nice dent and hole it left me! I am NOT a Happy Camper!! :-( Then I'm at the grocery store and I open the door of the stand up freezer to get the ice cream  and THE half gallon I wanted was in such a hurry to come with me that it THREW itself out of the freezer, hitting me hard on my shin bone! I hadn't even TOUCHED it yet. I'll have a nice bruise there for sure! So I carefully made my ...

Repurposed Packaging - Challenge #8 Finally had a chance to have a go at Week 8's Challenge at Studio L3 .  It is is called Repurposed Packaging and is found on page 62 of Tim Holtz's book   (Compendium of Curiosities Volume II). I can't say that I'm really fond of it...but I did manage to work my way through it.  I don't really care for plasticy (is that even a word?) stuff, so I found it a bit of a challenge.   I probably should have gone with a more organic look with paper packaging, old twine, etc...but I was really making an effort to try out his method.  Hey we don't learn if we don't try do we? So....here we go.   I really should quit photographing in low light...but by the time I get done in the evening, I'm limited to the low light here in my house.

Grungepaper Bracelet I was cruising blogs the other day for inspiration and I ran across this wonderful grungeboard/grungepaper bracelet by Sarah at La-De-Dah .  When I saw it I knew my youngest daughter would love something like this. Since today was a rainy day and I finished all my chores yesterday, I decided it was time to give this a go.  I didn't have any Grungeboard for the bottom layer, so I used two layers of Grungepaper and lined the inside with a soft felt.  Here's how it looked once finished... and here is a few pictures that I took while I was making it.  I usually forget to do this part... I cut the strips  at one inch and two inches wide with my deckle trimmer and ran them through the Vagabond with embossing folders.  My daughter picked a circles design for the bottom layer and a floral design for the top. I inked them up with several Distress Stains and Distress Inks and edged them in B...

Brushless Watercolor - Week 7 The technique for Week 7's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge at Studio L3 is found on page 49 in Tim Holtz's  book (Compendium of Curiosities Volume II).  It was fun and easy to put this tag together!  I used watercolor paper to create the tag and Distress Inks and Distress Stains. This week's sponsor is eclectic Paperie  and one lucky participant will be chosen at random to receive a $25 gift certificate. ...and now that I have a nice pile of stuff on my desk, I think I'll go back to playing and see what else I can some up with. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Tissue Wrap Collage - Challenge 6 Finally had some time to work on Challenge 6 set by Linda at Studio L3  for "A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II" by Tim Holtz.  This weeks challenge using the technique on page 38 in the book called Tissue Wrap Collage. This week's challenge is being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique so go check them out! They will be providing a $25 gift certificate for one lucky winner! I can't believe I made the deadline!  I ended up using the little UTEE/porcelain flowers that I had originally made for  Tim Holtz' May Tag.  I like them better on this tag.  For my little "extra" touch I added Perfect Pearl Mist.    I also had to make my own stamped tissue paper since I couldn't find anyone in our area selling Tim Holtz tissue paper and didn't have time to order it and still make the deadline.  My first attempt of this technique was a terrible failure.  LOL, but ...