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

 Tattered Florals Necklace Back in February... Tim Holtz posted a  Tattered Florals Challenge  on his blog and offered up some awesome prizes to five lucky winners.   I chose to make a necklace for a lovely friend who had a birthday this week and now that I've given it to her, I can post it on my blog. ...and here's a couple of close up shots. I cut my Tattered Floral parts from upholstery fabric samples using the Tattered Florals Die and the largest two rounded petal flowers. I cut several of each layer and dyed them, along with the Crinkle Ribbon, with  Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers  Distress Inks, as well as Spiced Marmalade and Peeled Paint Distress Stains.  I put the Stains and Inks on my non-stick craft mat and misted them with water and rubbed the parts through the inks. I scrunched them and dried them with a heat gun until they were almost dry. Then I used a Long Fastener and layered up the flower parts along with a flow...

What a Wonderful World This canvas was created for Tracy Weinzapfel's Mixed Media Mondays  March Creative Dare . The challenge is to create a piece of artwork illustrating one of your favorite song AND to incorporate a button. I took a day off of work today and spent a good portion of it at my art desk playing in my paints and working on my canvas. One of my favorite songs is "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.  I am always in awe of this wonderful and beautiful world we live in, so that is the song I picked,  ....and f or the button portion of the challenge I used little tiny red buttons for the roses. I'm thinking I should have used some modeling paste  or artist cement  to build up texture in my tree.  Oh well, I'm not going back to rework it. It really was a challenge to photograph once I finished, because I added just a tiny bit of Perfect Pearls  and even though it looks great in person,  it doesn't tr...

Liebster Award - Thanks Lori! Lori at Lori's Happy Place nominated me for a Liebster award a couple of weeks ago. At that time I was super busy and not feeling so great, so I put this post on the back burner until I could get it posted and nominate some of my favorite little blogs! What is a Liebster? Here's some information - THE AWARD This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these new blogs. ACCEPTANCE Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog, post the award onto your blog, give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that you have given them the Liebster Award! So I want to say Thank You so MUCH to Lori at Lori's Happy Place who nominat...

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? Good morning everyone!!  I'm up and at it, getting kids off to school.  I can't believe that it's been a full week since I sat down at my desk...but it's been a busy (and rough) week and I've been productive in other ways. I actually spent some time at my desk last night playing with DecoArt Americana paints and a canvas. It was very relaxing and I even remembered to snap a picture to post over at Julia's Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday?   You should check it out and play along! I do have to say it was a bit of a challenge though, as both of my Quality Control Officers, Sneakers and Momma, kept walking across my desk to check on my progress.  Luckily I managed to keep them from putting little cat footprints on my canvas. I have something in mind for Tracy Weinzapfel's Mixed Media March Creative Dare and I'm hoping that I can translate my vision to canvas.  So f...

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? Really not doing a lot creatively yet this week, as I really haven't had the time.  BUT, I have been doing a bit of what I call busy work, and have been cutting out tons of die cuts to add to my stash.  I like having a bunch cut out and ready to go when I need them.  I can do a few at a time and then come back later and do some more. I was busy getting things done this evening when I remembered that I needed to take a picture for WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), so I grabbed a quick shot.   I think I've got a pretty good stash cut out now and it's time to clean up my desk so I can inky! I've finished my March Tag for the 12 Tags of  2013 and you can see it still sitting on my desk on the right at the back...and now I need to get my Tattered Florals challenge done.    I know what I want to do...just need to get it done!!   I also need to get hopping on my March Challenge for Tracy Wein...

March When Tim posted his March tag for the 12 Tags of  2013  I knew I was going to have to do some major improvising because although I have a lot of Tim Holtz products in my stash, the only things I had this time was the Foliage and Memo Pins.   It took me a few days to wrap my head around it... but in the end I'm really happy with how my tag turned out  and it was nice to have some creative time at my art desk. Thanks for stopping in and feel free to leave me a comment and let you me know you stopped by! Anna I didn't have the Fringe Die so I  cut my grass by hand.  I looked at the picture of the die and sized my grass to match  Tim's.  I had Green Co-ordinations but not the Kraft one...so my grass is green on both sides of the fence.  I sanded the paper first and then gave it a good dose of Walnut Stain Distress Ink before cutting.  Then after I put it on my tag, I gave it a little hint of Picked Raspberry. ...

What's on YOUR Workdesk Wednesday? My desk is actually fairly clean as I have been working very hard at putting away what I use before I go to bed at night.  Since I share my desk with 2 kitties, it doesn't do well to leave pots of paint and water or piles of inkpads out on the desk. Here's a journal page that is on my desk this morning.  I had tucked it under the desk on a shelf to dry overnight and pulled it out to take a look at it this morning. I've been really bad about posting my WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday) as usually I don't have anything on my desk on Wednesday.  I don't do much art at my desk on Tuesday nights and I'm off and running on Wednesday mornings to my day job.  But this week, I had started a project on Monday for Mixed Media Mondays and wanted to work on it some more. Well...it's off to the day job!  Board Meeting day and I have to minutes to take, so it will be a long one for me. See you soon! ...

February Finally had time to work on my February Tag.  I didn't have most of the supplies that Tim used this month for his 12 Tags of 2013 ...but I loved the vibrant red of Tim's tag so I jumped in to see what I could come up with.   I pulled out my Distress Inks and rubbed them into my Craft Sheet and spritzed, then swiped my tag through the inks to give it the brilliant red.  I dried the tag with a heat gun and then flicked with more water to give it the mottled background. I dug out some Valentine and Love themed rubber stamps from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps and stamped a white card background and the tag.  I distressed the edges of the card with Barn Door and Walnut Stain Distress Inks.   For the Co-ordinations cardstock I didn't have any black so I took a greenish gray color and colored it with Black Soot Distress Ink and embossed with a Cuttlebug emboss folder and tore out the words "loving" and "you".  A little Recollections blin...

"Be" Spent the afternoon painting, spritzing and playing in my inks and paints.  You should have seen the many bottles that covered my desk.  I can see a dozen still sitting here...and the other 2 dozen have already been put away.  I think I used a little bit of everything, layering and dripping.  The picture really doesn't do the colors justice.  I'll have to try and remember to get a picture tomorrow when I can use natural light.   Here's a few up close shot of the progress....at least for a while.  Then after that my fingers got too inky to pick up the camera! Supply List Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Folk Art acrylic paints, Susan Pickering Rothamel's Pinata Color, Sherrill's Sorbets, Gelatos, Faber-Castell Big Brushes, chipboard letters, Dyan Reaveley stencils, StazOn reinker Lots of stickers!

January I finished my January Tag for  Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of 2013 .  I took inspiration from his layout and design...but found myself going off in my own direction and I'm quite please with how it turned out! Distress Inks Caged Bird die idea-ology Foliage Cuttlebug embossing folder idea-ology Hinge Clip "Believe" stamp and quote from Stamp Camp also snippets of Tim Holt tissue tape and film strip which mostly ended up hidden along the edge.

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday Now that the Holidays are over, I'm trying to get back to my art desk and take some time for me.  ...so this is what you will find on my workdesk this Wednesday.   WOYWW I used Faber-Castell Gelatos and Paper Crafter's Crayons.  ...a bunch of scribbling, spritzing, dripping and blending and I'm well on the way to having having the completed background for my March Art Journal Calendar page.  The image in the lower right hand corner is an image transfer using Claudine Hellmuth's Matte Mixed Medium which I then colored with the Crayons and Gelatos. Well...it's time to put the crayons away and call it a night.  Artful Dreams everyone!!

A Birthday Card for Tim Holtz! This week is the final Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge at Studio L3 which is to to is create a birthday card for Tim, using your favorite technique from the Compendium series.  I love it that Tim is a fellow Capricorn with his birthday coming just one day after mine!   I used Distress Inks and the Spritz and Flick Distress technique to create the background.  I used some German Scrap and a snippet of Tim's film strip along with layers of stamping in the background with Distress Inks.  The flowers are made using the Tattered Garland Die and some idea-ology Foliage parts. I used the Newsprint Alpha Parts to add the birthday greeting to the back and left a bit of room to add a personal message. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!!!

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.