Oldie Moldie Monday

Oldie Moldie Monday - time to use some of your old supplies.  I have had these Penny Black Stickers for awhile and coordinating card stock.  I found a Basic Grey 6 x 6 pad and away we went to make some cards.  I decided I wanted to make my shape a little bit different.

The stickers were tall and narrow so I have them extending off the top of the card.  The dots are card stock with glossy accents on top.  The cards will go to a couple special people.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  Come back next week to see the remainder of the stickers on the sheet in cards.

Oldie Moldie Monday

I can finally share these ATC's I made for a swap.

I made 6 of these for an exchange.  This started me down the road of using all the eyelets I have (oldie moldie).  I needed to attach the vellum to the card.  I did not want to worry about making sure they were straight on the vellum so I did the random application of the first 3 and then added 2 more.  The stamp is also an oldie moldie.

I will post a "how to" later on.

Since I was participating in a swap - I made an ATC for the hostess with the mostess.  See I used more eyelets.

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your week.

Spring is Sprung

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  Yeah.  Winter has been long - very long so happy to see Spring come.  Of course, I love Spring but I also hate Spring.  I love the warmth returning, the flowers and grass starting to grow but I hate the work - all the leaves that did not get raked need to be cleaned up.  Hopefully the rain predicted this week will wash away some of the grime left on our lawns.

This week the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge is Spring.  I dug through my collection of backgrounds and found a yellow piece which I cut down to the correct size for an ATC.  This is a recycled background piece.  Recycled cardstock and a layer of an old book.  Add some gesso and paint and away we go.  I recently got the February color from Tim Holtz.  This time I got the ink not the paint.  The flower stamp is from Hero Arts.  I stamped it with Versamark and Black ink and then used clear embossing powder.  It really makes your image pop.  The flower was colored with distress ink and the leaves with distress paint.  A couple stencils and more distress paint added some texture to the ATC front.

The sentiment is a sticker from SRM Stickers.  I placed the sticker on a leftover piece of inked paper.  I added a strip of polka dot paper at the top of the ATC for some contrast.  I also used my favorite circle stamp from Stamps by Judith to add the circles.  Glitter gel was added to the flower and then glossy accents added to the petals and leaves.

I am leaving on vacation and if I can get up enough courage I want to do some art abandonment along the way.  I believe I will leave this piece somewhere in the Florida Keys.  I just want to try this but then I have lots of friends I could mail it to and they would love it also.  What to do what to do.

Oldie Moldie Monday

I have lots of eyelets so I am on a mission to use them up.  I have been using them on ATC cards.  I have a long ways to go.

Here are two ATC's I made.  I grabbed some pieces of background paper I had made for the base of the ATC's.  I believe both were made with Twinkling H2O's.

This ATC also uses a very old stamp.  The stamp really works great for an ATC.  It is the perfect size.  Two eyelets used.  Five circles colored with acrylic paint with glossy accents over the top and two eyelets - an uneven number.  I love that little circle stamp from Judith.  It is great for mixed media items.

This is a new stamp from Studio 490 and it has a coordinating stencil with it.  There are two sized flowers.  The sentiment is from a Unity Stamp Set.  You will note that 5 eyelets were used on this ATC.  I added Faber Castell Bead Glitter gel on the flower and then put glossy accents on the flower and leaves.

Be prepared for more eyelets.  I think it will become my new signature item until I use up the approximately 5000 I have.

Show some love for your old supplies.

ATC - Green Bird

I have started making ATC's and find they are quite fun.  Little pieces of art.  Something to satisfy the creative urge in your soul.  This week I discovered a challenge blog for ATC's called Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge Blog.  I thought I would play along with their challenge this week which is green.

I keep all my pieces of backgrounds I made so I went and dug through my box and I did find a piece of green background with blue highlights in it.  I think the background was made with different layers of acrylic paint.

I also decided to play along with the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge which is Birds of a Feather.

I have had this Hero Arts bird stamp for awhile - I had to have it and then it sat.  I have now used it twice in the last couple months.  I inked the stamp with some VersaMark and Versafine black ink.  I then used clear embossing powder on top to it really pops and has some texture.  The sentiment is another Hero Arts stamp which I stamped the same way but only used part of the sentiment.  The other day I discovered and decided it was my goal to use up eyelets.  I added 5 eyelets to my ATC.  Some rub ons from Basic Gray were added to the front of the ATC.  I used my black Big Brush Pen and ran it along the edges of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my green bird ATC.  Yes life is good - our temps are in the 60's and the snow is melting.

B is for ......

B is for ...... Barb, of course.  This is the weekly challenge on the Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog.  How lucky for me that my Wednesday post is to share a fabric ATC I made for the Mixed Media Mojo March monthly challenge.

If you have been following along on my blog, you will see that I am starting to do art work with the letter B - which stands for Barb - which is lots of fun to do.  I have made several ATC's for my wall.  You can check out a couple at this link.  There are many ideas in my head.  I need to stop thinking and just make some "B" art.

I have a how to on the Mixed Media Mojo blog on how I created the ATC.  Actually it was too easy.  Pop over and check it out.

Hump day - yeah - downward slide to the week end.

Never Inked Stamp

On a private facebook group, we had a challenge to use a stamp that had never seen ink before.  This stamp was sitting there along with my new pad of distress ink - the February color of the month.

The stamp set is from Hero Arts.  It has an outline stamp and then a stamp of the full image.  I first stamped the outline.  I colored the bloom with the distress ink.  I then inked up the full image of the bloom and stamped it over the top of the colored bloom.  This is how I got the depth of color.  I had first practiced on a piece of paper so kinda knew what I wanted to do.  I colored around the flower with a very light wash of a watercolor.

For the sentiment I inked up a piece of watercolor paper and let it dry.  I then stamped the sentiment.  The little dots are punched out of the remaining colored watercolor paper.  I put glossy accents on top and have my homemade enamel dots.

I colored the thread with distress ink also so it matches perfectly.

I am entering this in the monthly Our Daily Bread Designs challenge on Stars and Stamps - Operation Write Home's card blog.  The challenge is to have the focus on the sentiment.

I am also entering it in House of Cards monthly challenge to use enamel dots.  Well mine are fake enamel dots - hopefully that counts.

Enjoy your evening - I am cleaning - ugh.

Oldie Moldie Monday

I bet you thought I was going to miss posting Oldie Moldie Monday.  No - I just did not get the picture taken until tonight.

I found this paper - it is double sided - dots on one side and green on the other side.  I just dug through my solid scraps and found the brown and blue.  The truck is a favorite old stamp.  It is one I go to for masculine cards.  Actually my daughters had a brown pick up they drove.  The sentiment had never seen ink before.

I have made a couple of these cards.  I am donating them to some cause but I have to find it.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Prima Tag

Today I am sharing a tag I made for a swap.  It traveled all the way to Australia.  Do you know it go to its new home in Australia before a package of ATC's made it to the state of Oregon.  I think there may be something shameful about that.

I used one of my Prima Doll stamps.  The tag is also from Prima.  The paper used is y My Mind's Eye.  A 6 x 6 pad I got on clearance at Michael's.  Love clearance.  Plus I have a thing for 6 x 6 pads.  A girl can never have too many in her collection.

The girls outfit is paper pieced along with the background of the tag.  Multiple flowers were added to complete the tag.  The yellow flower is one I made with coffee filters.  I brushed some glitter on the flower to bring some bling into the tag.

Thanks for stopping by.

Art Journal Page

The first page in a journal. Somewhat daunting - very scary.

I have had this blank journal for awhile.  It is a mixed media journal.  It is laying in the area where I do my mixed media so when I had gesso left over I would smear it on the page.  I have two pages that are prepped like this. 

Tonight I started my first page.  When I read the monthly Take the Challenge with Mou on the Faber Castell blog - to create a project related to Time.  

I scribbled some different colors of Gelatos on the page and then smoothed them out with a wipe.  

Currently I am not too happy with the look but I know it can be changed very easily.  I deepened the color with more Gelatos and spread the color with my fingers so more of the pigment stayed on the page.

I found this great image of an antique alarm clock at The Graphic Fairy and printed it on copy paper.  I cut it out and added it to the page with gel medium. 

I then took different stencils and distress paint and added some texture around the page.  My favorite turned out to be the orange paint with the square stencils.  I liked it so well I put it on in several different areas of the page.  I also painted in the edge of the paper where the spiral was. 

I am always afraid to write or stamp directly on a page because of the chance to ruin something.  I decided to write my quote on tissue paper.  I love how tissue paper just melts into your background with gel medium.  (sorry my picture of the handwriting on the tissue paper did not turn out).  I wish now I had written it larger and it was darker.  

I took a Tim Holtz stencil that had numbers on it (a page about time needs numbers on it).  I laid the stencil on the page and used the Big Brush through the stencil to add the numbers in 4 different spots.  I also stamped some circles (I love this little circle stamp from Judith).  I painted the inside of the circle with a Dina Wakely acrylic paint (my only tube).  

I keep feeling the urge to add more to the page but I like the page the way it is.  

Some things that make my soul happy are my daughters, my mother, the rest of my family, my neighbors, playing with my paper, and the thought that in about 15 months I hope to retire.  On that note thanks for stopping by.

House of Cards Monthly Challenge

The monthly challenge at House of Cards is enamel dots.  I love these things but the hard part is the scatter thing.  I can sweat over the correct placement of 3 or 5 or 7 enamel dots, pearls, gems, etc.

I needed to make a good bye card for a co worker.  This card is from the office.

I had made the background on which the flower is stamped.  I made it awhile ago but I believe it was made with distress inks on watercolor paper.  I like to make some of these up and have them waiting to be used. I hate the wait till it is dry.  I also save all my scraps of background papers I have made.  I know someday I will need them.

As you can see there are black enamel dots on the card.  I also wanted to bring in the colors of the background paper but of course, you never have enamel dots in the correct colors.  I have started using the old fashioned hole punch for circles.  Place the dots on my card with a glue dot and then I add glossy accents on top.  It is a "kinda faux" enamel dot that exactly matches.  The flower was colored with distress paints.

Hope you liked my enamel dot card.  Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

This is my Oldie Moldie Monday card.  I love the little moose from Hero Arts.  I added googly eyes to him this time.  He is going to a young man battling cancer.  His grandmother is a fellow card maker.

Remember to dig out your old supplies and show them some love.

Mixed Media Mojo March Challenge

Yes I know I have been missing but I have been doing some creating.  Winter continues to drag on and zap many of us of any desire to do much.  I go to work, I come home, I hope to sleep and then it starts all over.

On the creative side, I have been having lots of fun with the Monthly challenge for Mixed Media Mojo.  

There is something so fun about creating those little pieces of art.  ATC cards - 2.5 inches by 3.5. You can do so much in that little space.  The Twist is Set of 2.  It could mean two ATC's; it could be two of the same element on one card; what will your interpretation of the twist be.

My first interpretation (and I will share more during the month) is a set of 2.  I am redoing my living room and have some beautiful fabric that I picked out the some of the colors from.  I also have this idea to have a wall of "B" art.  Stay tuned to the blog for more fun with that.  Are you ready, here are my ATC's.  A set of 2; each ATC has 2 sets of B's, each card has a B an a b; two butterflies.

Once again I used my Dina Wakely scribbly bird stamp.  Do you know I have discovered entire boards on Pinterest of beautiful creations with this stamp set.  The Butterflies is a stamp I have had for years.

Come back later in the month and I will share a how to on these ATC's and also be sharing my other ATC's.

Get your creativity on and join us at Mixed Media Mojo.  Oh, did you hear we have a Design Team call - come play with us.