Tracy style Sunflower

Wow. I am out of practice in blog land. I have been doing things just apparently not sharing them. Oh well.

I did want to participate in Tracy's Oct/Nov challenge. So here it is.

So it is acrylic paints. Archival ink on the laugh stamp. Doodles with the scarlet lime pen and white is the unibal signo. 

The inspiration comes from Tracy.I had fun doing this and hope for more projects I can complete.

Enjoy your day.

Stamp Club Challenge

My stamp club challenged us to use something new or that we haven't used previously. I got that! This isn't the first card I did for this challenge but I am rather proud of this one. Always hard to do male cards and this is one. 

White card base. Distress inked the edges with vintage photo. Words and pocket watch are by Unity ~ Time well spent collection. The stencil is by mini gears by The Crafters Workshop.

Hope you enjoy it.

Unity Be Inspired Challenge

Just got some Unity stamps so I figured I could participate in the Unity Be Inspired challenge.

Must say I had some fun with this. I used the Loolah Collection for the background. I stamped in archival black and colored with distress markers then I sprayed the whole thing with water and watched it move and the color saturate. That was fun.

The Be Grateful round stamp is from KOTH Sept 2013 Happiness has no limit. Cardstock is PTI.

Here is the sketch.

Here is my rendition of the above sketch.

Thanks for checking it out.

I am...

I have been working on the March challenge journal page of "I am" for Tracy and if only the picture would look the same as the page I would be slightly happier. 

It's not nearly as dark as the photo but that is the best I can do. Apparently. I used stencils, homemade texture paste, some pan pastels, charcoal pencil, big brush pens, acrylic paints. And my white Montana pen. Can't live without that one.

Hope you enjoy. And will be back to craft days next week.

Full House Fun Friday

We had a great Friday here at Stamp Nirvana (my basement). We have been participating in the kit of the month mixed media challenge at Pages in Time. So Cindi, Debbie, and I worked our magic on whimsy canvases. And while we all worked on them in my basement at the same time, they look soooo different. Not showing them off yet but we should get our January ones back at the end of the month and I will show them then.

I finished an art journal page. I had so much fun working on her. She is a compilation of many different youtube vid all about mixed media.

It is an 11 by 14 journal. The owl is leftover paper from a stamp club project that I cut up to sort of resemble an owl. I used acrylics, studio line paint, gelatos, scarlet lime pen, gesso, Tim Holtz tissue paper,and stencils with black archival ink. 

Hope you enjoy.

Inspire Flowers

Here is a page I did this past week that was a spin off of Tracy's Monday night show and I like how it came out. Not much is the same but it was a great starting place. If I could only draw more than stick figures I would be so much better. Practice....

They are made with decades old paper I painted on and buttons from my stash. Added some doodles and faber castell big brush pens for shading. And I have heard dots are happy....

Craft Friday

We try very hard to have a craft day once a week at my house. Sometimes I have two friends but sometimes one. This past Friday I had Cindi here to play.

Cindi challenges me to come up with different things to do since she isn't much of a card maker. She is however transforming into a beautiful artist of every other medium. Here is what we did on Friday.

This art was inspired by Dyan Revely youtube that I found before she got all those ugly tattoos on her arms. I am not a fan of skin mutilation. Sorry if I offend.

Hope you enjoy the art. It was fun to watch them come to life but they took more time than a usual canvas. More labor intensive I guess. But so cute.

Girl Canvas

I was inspired by Teresa when we did a girl canvas at the Cozy Crop House on mixed media weekend. I had trouble with the one I did there but I used it to push myself into something I do like. The first picture is what I finished at home from the first canvas. The second picture is one I did at home. They are so much fun to do.

 Hope you enjoy. Go make some art. I said so. 

Mixed Media Weekend

All I can say is WOW. What an awesome weekend. Jam packed with so many fun techniques and wonderful projects I can hardly believe it. Deb and I are staying an extra night because I just can't go back to reality without a little rest after all this fun.

Wonderful teachers. Teresa did an amazing job of teaching us to make atc cards to remember our weekend and then she showed us how to alter a book into a tag holding book (so cute) and Then a canvas with a girl. So much work and preparation went into this weekend I cannot imagine. Very well done and appreciated.

Another teacher is Tami who was so much fun to listen to with many different, yet important aspects of mixed media. There are no wrong answers, isn't that what you think? Tami taught us to use gelli plates and make loads of background papers and how to use texture. We also made a love banner with personalized stencils from Tami's etsy site which is just fun to peruse. Then she showed us a white on white on white canvas which challenged us and showed us reasons never to throw our trash away. So much talent in such a little body.

This photo below really is all white. And so much fun to do.

And I save our ring leader for last. She is the backbone of the Cozy Crop House and all around wonderful person. Kate is an inspiration and go getter for the craft minded. She taught us to cut apart soda cans, use alcohol inks, and make gorgeous wreaths. The wreath is simply stunning. What a spirit that girl has and is so willing to help you get where you need to be with your art. 

I feel blessed to be here and enjoy a weekend of like minded friends. It was nice to see old friends and make new ones. And so nice to get away from home and all the snow days. Hope to do it again next year (try and keep me away).

Altered Box

We have regular craft days here (or we try anyway). This past week we worked on a box. Cindi enjoys getting Birch Boxes once a month with goodies in it. She has a stash of boxes so we altered some. Great fun as usual. 

These were made with acrylic paints, torn book paper, white and black montana pen, and a sharpie. Also used some Faber Castell Big Brush markers on the hearts to add shading. Gloss gel medium on outside and inside of box.

I think I am going to put some handmade cards in mine and give to a neighbor for her March birthday.

Hope you enjoy.

Organizing Challenge

My stamp club issued a challenge for this month to organize. I also was alerted to Tiffany Spaulding's organizing methods and I took the challenge.  All I can say is wow, what a difference. I will be posting some photos here to show what I have been doing. It doesn't look like much but there is a boat load of work involved. Hopefully I will like it as much as everyone states. Sure would be nice to find stuff easily!

The only thing new is the scrap rack itself. I had the storage cubes already just turned them on their sides. I have moved loads of paper and stuff in the center of my room. In the reconfigure process now. 

Here is a photo of the middle of the room empty.

Here is the paper storage and scrap rack now.

Here is a panoramic photo of my room. It isn't as big as it looks when it bends the walls. But it is a cool place to play.

I will update as  more changes are made.

Another watercolor

I have been organizing in my basement craft area and that has taken over the creative process. But yesterday I needed some create time. Here is what happened for me.

Just some watercolors and a Montana pen in black and a larger one in white. It felt so good to create again.

Hope you enjoy.

Watercolors

I feel like I haven't been on here in ages. I am trying to get back into the rhythm of school and activities but snow days are definitely  slowing down the process. However, I have been watching some videos and have been inspired.

Tracy is a delight to watch, especially when her dad is in the studio and I have been having fun making some watercolor cards.

Here are my creations:

 Just some crazy free hand flowers.

 This one above actually says thinking of you.

 A lopsided heart.

 This is supposed to be a flower but it morphed into something else. Not sure what that is.

 This last one is my favorite. It is a stamp that I watercolored with aqua crayons. The background is Dyan Reveley stamps. Hope you enjoy them.

Magazine Monday Week Thirty Five

Well Hello again! Hard to believe the holidays are now behind us. It was so much fun to meet and greet and see friends and family. We loved it but I am ready for school ~ in a big way.

It felt good to play again with the Paper Crafters Corner challenge. So here is the card I made.

The stamp sets are Paper Trey Ink. They are Delightful Doilies,  Banner Builder and Framed. The lace "curtains" are River City Rubber Works. The words are Jody Posey but she has long since closed up her online store. The little doodads are from Waltzing Mouse Stamps and I don't remember which set but there are extras in almost every set she sells. Love WMS. I used gold embossing powder and a versamark pen to create the border.

Hope you enjoy. It is a good feeling to be back in my creative space.

Thanks to PCC.