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

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 ...

May - Sewing Mends the Soul... Finally completed my May Tag following along with Tim Holtz.  Took a few days and a bit of rummaging in my old sewing supplies, but I like the way it came out.  I tried the porcelain flowers technique with my Melting Pot and UTEE, but I didn't like how my little flowers came out.  That is sometthing I'll have to try again some other time.  I'm liking the flatter tag better I think.  It's got some embellishments that give it depth...but not so big and heavy that they overpower the tag.  I used pattern paper from an old pattern and a couple of sewing related stamps by Just For Fun.  I dug out my old Dymo label maker for the quote.  Hope I can get my CC2 Challenge #6 tag done before Thursday night's deadline.  My first attempt was a disaster.  Just don't flip this tag over and look at the back!!  I hated to waste a good tag, so I yanked off the grungeboard embellishments I had put o...

Shattered Stains - Week 5  I finally got my "A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II" by Tim Holtz, so now I can play along in the challenges set by Linda at Studio L3 .  Each week a new challenge is issued using the techniques in the book.This week's challenge was to follow the "Shattered Stains" technique on page 48.  This week's challenge is being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp  so go check them out!  A gift certificate of $25 will be awarded for one lucky randomly-selected winner I'm running a bit late but at least I got it done!  (CORRECTION! I ran too late for the challenge, but HEY I had fun doing it anyway and hopefully I'll make it on time for the one that starts today, since I know what time the deadline is now.) I had to do a bit of digging around in my cabinets to find the art supplies I wanted to use.  Once I got started I could have played for hours, but alas...chores are calling my name as well as my bed.  Another...

Mother's Day Cards Finally got my Mother's Day card finished and ready to give.  The last few days I've just been too tired to work on anything...so I just had to content myself to read blogs and soak in all the glorious colors and ideas that others have been sharing. Had a bit more energy today, so I was determined to get my cards done before they got too late!!  One has been delivered and one will go in the mail tomorrow, with the last one being delivered tomorrow night. Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend...it back to work for me tomorrow!

More inky fun here tonight.  I really should wait to photograph and post until the mornings since the colors really don't photograph so well here at my art desk....but I'm usually too busy getting kids off to school, taking care of all the 4 legged babies in the house and me off to work to have to dig out the camera and blog. The colors are just a little bit too vibrant in the photo, but all in all they aren't too far off.  I dug out my Distress Inks and my Marvy Matchables and my new handmade blending tools and had fun layering on the color.  I pulled down boxes of stamps from the closet and went searching through my word and quote stamps until I found some that spoke to me.  I've got BOXES and BOXES or stamps in the closet and it is so fun to pull them down and rummage through them!  Someday I hope to have shelves so that I can pull out my favorite ones and line them up so I can grab them easier when I want them. I really enjoy my late night art time,...

I went out walking yesterday morning at the local Antique Market, then spent time some time downtown on the waterfront with my youngest daughter and her boyfriend watching the jet skit races.  So after a hot day out my hubby and I had a late dinner downtown on the waterfront at the local Irish pub and ended the day with a walk on the waterfront. I hadn't had time to play with my inks this past week, so once I got home I spent some late night hours at my art desk.  Even though I used lots of products while playing, I managed to keep everything fairly neat and put away as I worked.  After a major cleaning a couple of weeks back, I've been trying to make an effort to put things in their place when I'm done.  Just a few more things to put away and it will be all tidy (for the most part). I hate trying to photograph anything that has a shimmer mist sprayed on it.  I have the hardest time getting all the colors and shimmer to show without the shimmer being way...

Played at my desk a bit last night and did something different for a change. I used a couple of sheets from my K&Company Julianne Special Paper 12 x 12 stack and made a sunny little card. I fussy cut the big flowers, which already come with a touch of sparkle to their petals and used a smaller matching floral print for the background. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in wild honey along the edges to add some shading and soften the cut edges. I left space for the sentiment and tucked the card in my stash for when I need a last minute card. All I'll have to do is add a sentiment and it will be ready to go. The card base is a pretty off-white pearl cardstock that I get from Marco Paper, and I used a dark green cardstock for layering. Card Front Inside

 Took some time to play with inks and stamps with no particular end in sight tonight.  I took a tag that I had used to mop up inks when I was making a mess the other night and finished it out with more color and some stamping.  Dug out my alchohol inks and inked up some trinkets to match.  The Grapevine stamps are from Stampin' Up from 1996. Somerset Studios sent them to me to be do as part of their "With One Stamp" feature several years ago. They would send out the same set of stamps to a few artists and we would create different projects and send them back to be featured in the magazine. At that time I was submitting a lot of rubberstamp projects and collage art to the magazine and had several pieces published in Somerset Studios and Legacy. I finally had to give up doing that as I got busy with work and three young children...etc, etc. but I've missed all my inks and papers and my creative time each night and I'm making more of an effort to just D...