Drawing Birds

A couple week ends ago I was at Bella Connections and a class I took from Cindy Shepard - she had us drawing birds.  Well I really enjoyed that and just keep drawing birds.  I have to have an idea and then I see if I can do my version.

Yesterday I decided to draw an owl.  I had so much fun drawing the owl and coloring it.

The October Challenge with Mou on the Faber Castell Blog is to use black chalkboard paint and an owl.  A double whammy.  Thanks for stretching my limited drawing skills and making me try to draw an owl.  I really like how it turned out.

The canvas board has 3 layers of black chalkboard paint on it.  The owl was drawn on a book page and colored with Gelatos and Inktense pencils.  A Faber Castell black pen was used for outlining the parts of the owl.  The owl was added to the board with gel medium.  I outlined the image with a pen I had.  I stamped the sentiment twice.  Once on teal colored book pages and once on pink colored book pages and cut them out.  I love this sentiment.  After everything was adhered, I rubbed some pink distress paint along the edge and then did white splats.  I really like how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.  Don't be afraid to try to draw.  If I can do it so can you - or maybe I will call it whimsical doodling.

Apple for the Teacher

I am posting over on the Mixed Media Mojo Blog today but wanted to share the post here on my blog.

 It is not to early to start thinking about gifts for teachers for the upcoming holidays or for just any day.  I don’t think we can say thanks in enough ways to the educators of our youth.

Our challenge this month is back to school with book pages as the added element.  I chose to alter a small recycled jar (the jar could be filled with many different things).  Wash your jar very well and let it dry. 

I covered the jar with strips of book pages which were adhered with gel medium.  After they dried I brushed on a coat of clear gesso.  I was thinking I wanted the words to show through from the page pages.

 I then painted a layer of red paint.  After that dried, I sponged on two different reds to give the color more depth. 

Now to add the finishing touches.  I left the lid the color it was which was a goldy brown.  I colored a piece of wood that looked like a knob dark brown to represent the stem.  I adhered two layers of book pages together; cut out two leaves freehand and colored them with green ink.  A touch of brown ink was added also.  I took a piece of brown twine, doubled it, wet it with gel medium and wrapped it around a pencil so I could get the curl in it.  Once it is dry remove it carefully from the pencil.  I wrapped natural twine under the lid; tied a bow, and added a tag with thanks stamped on it. 

I do have an artistic conflict going on.  Should I leave the jar as it is or should I brush shiny modge podge on it so my apple shines.  What do you think?

 I am going to enter this in the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge is to alter something.  

Enjoy your Wednesday.  

Mixed Media Mojo Monthly Challenge

The monthly challenge at Mixed Media Mojo is to choose lines from a tic tac board.  The twist is to use every square on the board.  Here is your tic tac board to inspire your creativity.

I chose the middle line:  Gesso, Stencil and Chipboard.  I am behind in my birthday cards so I decided to make a birthday card.

I took a piece of mixed media paper and colored it with a light pink Gelatos.  I then used my clear Gesso (yes there is clear Gesso) and put a layer over my pink color.  I wanted the pink color to be sealed.  I took a stencil and used a watercolor pencil.  I outlines the octagon shapes and colored them in with the watercolor pencil.  I took my water brush and blended the colors.  I added lighter color in other openings.  A second stencil was used to add the silver chevron stripe with silver embossing paste from Faber Castell.

The chipboard is from Basic Grey.  I first colored the chipboard with distress paint.  After it was dry, I inked it up with VersaMark and used a new product called Enamels from The Rubber Cafe.  The color is Sea Glass.  (of course, now I wish I had bought several more colors).  I punched the butterfly and colored it with silver embossing powder.  It is so pretty.  The sentiment was stamped on vellum with the same enamel.  The chipboard was glued to the front of the card with Glossy Accents.  I also used Glossy Accents to adhere the butterfly.

I wasn't quite happy with the color on the card front so on the one side I took my watercolor pencil and added the deeper pink into the openings of the chevron.  I was much happier with the front then.

To finish the card, I matted it in dark gray cardstock.  Wrapped the sentiment around the card front.  Added some silver cord above the sentiment.  The front panel was popped up on the card front.  I then took some enamel dots which are silver glitter (from a Halloween collection) and scattered them around the card front.

I hope you will join us at Mixed Media Mojo this month and play with our tic tac board.

I am also entering this card into the weekly Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Creativity - Mixed Media Canvas

The monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog by Mou is CREATIVITY. How are you creative, your favorite creativity quote, is creativity your life style or just a hobby... whatever it means to you, create a project around the idea of creativity.

Being creative is such a wonderful part of my life.  It brings some beauty to each day that I am able to create.  It eases some of the hardness of the day or makes a good day even better.  But everyone will tell you I work in a mess.  A horrible mess so I thought this quote was quite appropriate for me.

Creativity is messy and I am very creative.  

This is a 5 x 7 canvas that I gessoed.  I added several shades of paint on top of the gesso.  I took the Tim Holtz splatter stencil because I thought it looked messy to add the brighter orange color on the back.  I added some blue paint through another stencil.  The flower was cut with my Silhouette.  I needed something to ground my sentiment.  The sentiment was generated on the computer and colored with watered down paint.  I stamped the circles and colored them green.  I added texture paste through a stencil in several locations on the stencil.  On top of the black flower I brushed a layer of Glitter and Bead Gel.  It really sparkles.  

Thanks for stopping by.  I did enjoy my creative therapy this week end.  

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.

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.

Oldie Moldie Monday Goes Mixed Media

On Monday's I always try to use old supplies.  This Monday if you scratched the surface you would find a very old piece of patterned paper in pink and brown.  I have a drawer of very old pink and brown paper.  The coffee cup stamp is very old also.

I am combining three challenges for this post.  The first challenge is the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog Design Memory Craft.  Mou is challenging us to post about our favorite beverage.

My favorite beverage is coffee.  I have to start my day with coffee.  I make sure I take the first thirty minutes of my morning savoring that first and second cup of coffee.  After that - I can face my day.

I searched Pinterest for the perfect coffee quote.  I found several but decided to use this one.  Some mornings, this is exactly how I feel about my first cup of coffee.

This is a piece of recycled chipboard which I adhered patterned paper to it with gel medium.  I applied a very light coat of gesso over it.  After that I applied some pink acrylic paint and then wiped some of the paint off exposing some of the lower layers.  I have a Tim Holtz stencil that looks like coffee stains.  I added that to the front of the image with a brown gelato.  The image was stamped on tissue paper and then color was added to the backside of the tissue paper.  When you apply the tissue paper to your base with gel medium it melts into the background.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut into strips and colored with distress paint.  Tim's new January color.  I adhered that to the front of the base.  The words were then outlined with a brown marker.  I have several small stamps I like to use on my projects.  I love that circle.  You can stamp it and then add color.  I used the Big Brush to add some brighter pink.  I took another stencil and my white Big Brush pen and just colored the circles in in different areas.  I like how the white softens the colors.  I then took the bright pink Big Brush and brushed it along the outside edges and underneath the cup to ground it.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I am also entering it into the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly which is Think Pink.

It is also being entered in the Creative Corner challenge which is a Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I used the middle row:  Paints, Stamps and Stencils.

I hope you have had your first cup of coffee and you are able to enjoy my coffee creation.

The Dog Ate My Birthday Card

This was the birthday card I made for my daughter.  She never got to see it; she brought it from the mailbox and laid it on the table and Axl (the dog) ate it.  Axl loves paper.  He even ate the dog shaming book.

The stamp is by Whipper Snapper Designs.  It was colored with distress paints and Gelatos.

It was a very nice card.  He also ate her Christmas Santa canvas.  Good thing I love that darn dog.

Monthly Faber-Castell Challenge

It is that time of the month when Mou posts her monthly challenge on the Faber-Castell blog.  Thc challenge this month is January: the first month of the year! A time of making new resolutions, fresh starts, starting again. It's the time of new beginnings. Your challenge this month is to create anything to celebrate new beginnings. 

This is a 5 x 7 canvas board.  It is a gift for a young lady in her 20's who has ventured forth to live her dream.  I know that she can do it but she sometimes battles her demons and they try to break her wonderful spirit.  One of the demons right now is also cancer.

The canvas represents being positive.  You have two choices - glass is half full or half empty - choose the positive one - choose the sunshine not the rain.  Although that monkey looks pretty happy in the rain.  Must be the snazzy little slicker and boots she is wearing.

Why a monkey - she loves monkeys.  Why a huge orange sun - aren't suns yellow - well orange is her favorite color.

I covered the canvas with gesso.  I just plopped some gesso on the board and then I took a paper towel and blobbed it around the canvas so I got some different texture - not the normal paint brush nothingness.  I then colored the gesso with gelatos.  I scribbled them on and then smeared them with my hands and some water.  The monkey was stamped on a gessoed piece of a book page and colored with different mediums.  He was glued to the canvas with gel medium.  The sun was a combination of different mediums to achieve the color I wanted.  I stamped the sentiment.  I added the little flowers last because I thought that added to the sunshine.  I used the Glass Bead Glitter Gel on the sun and also on parts of the monkey.  I added some texture with Whipped Spackle and a stencil.

I finished the canvas off with one of the Big Brush Pens around the edge (bright pink) and softening the edges with my fingers.

I know it will maker my friend smile and hopefully it will help her stay positive in this next big adventure called life.

Holiday Ornament

I have had this ornament design rolling around in my head for awhile so it feels good to get it done.  I really do like how it turned out.  I do wish I could get a better photograph of it.

The challenge on the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Blog is anything goes.  Yeah - my ornament came to life.

The clear glass ornaments that you can buy at the holidays are wonderful to create with.  They are a blank canvas.  I put a coat of clear gesso on the front of the ornament.  I painted some dictionary pages with gesso and when it was ready I stamped Mr. Snowman.  I colored the few things that you need to color on a snowman.  I used my Faber Castell Big Brush pens.  I put the snowman on the front of the ornament with gel medium.  I then used some embossing paste for my snowbank.  The sky was painted with distress paints.  I used a stencil to add the white dots in the sky (snow).  I brushed Glass Bead Glitter Gel over the snowbank and snowman.  I added some snowflake stickers to the sky.

I am also going to enter this ornament in the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge this month is to make a gift for someone using your mixed media supplies.

I am also sharing this ornament on the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog which is Christmas/Holiday.

Next week I will do a tutorial on the different steps for making this ornament on the Mixed Media Mojo blog.

You too can have your own Paper Smooches stamps by shopping here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mixed Media Mojo December Challenge

The monthly challenge for Mixed Media Mojo December is Winter-Winter Holiday - Twist Ornament.  

Yes it is the time of the year when we are anxiously trying to get things done for the holidays.  Some ornaments made for gifts, handmade cards, buy gifts, cook, ant eat too much.

I made an ornament for the challenge.  I had an idea and looked on Pinterest for some creative help.  This is what I came up with.  It does need some refinement but I think it will look good on my snowman tree.

The shape was cut with my Silhouette.  It consists of two layers of recycled card stock and a layer of  a book page.  The blue color is a combination of gelatos, distress paint and ink.  The snowman was made with embossing paste.  I did color the paste for the nose with orange before I put it on the snowman.  The eyes are a couple of buttons embedded in the embossing paste.  The mouth and eye brows were drawn with a sharpie.  Some snowflakes and the word Peace were rub ons.  The other snowflakes were stamped on the blue.  I used a metallic silver paint around the edge of the heart.  Floral wire made the hanger.

Please join us on the Mixed Media Mojo blog and make an ornament for the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mixed Media Birthday Canvas

My sweet little Ganny Baby (I am her Ganny Barb) is turning four years old.  How time flies.  She is living in North Carolina so I won't be seeing her until next summer.  I wanted to make her something other than a card - so decided a little canvas would be perfect.  I decided to use some of my Paper Smooches stamps.  The challenge on the Paper Smooches Spark Challenge blog this week is Anything Goes.  Yeah!!

I prepped a 5 x 5 canvas with Gesso.  I then painted a loose landscape scene of the canvas.  Sky and grass - very loose landscape.  I stamped the sentiment, sun and unicorn on watercolor paper.  They were colored with a variety of gelatos, distress paint and distress ink.  The hearts were stamped on an old magazine page, colored and cut out.  I stamped the clouds on the canvas and then put a layer of Gesso on the inside.  I added Whipped Texture Medium on top of the design and swirled it around so it has great dimension.  After it was a little dry, I took a glass bead/glitter gel medium and put on top of the clouds.  I also used the glitter gel medium on top of the sentiment.  All the stamped/colored images were adhered to the canvas with gel medium.  I put gel medium over the top of everything to seal it.  Of course, being for a little girl, after using her favorite colors of purple and pink, I had to add glitter.  All the purple on the unicorn has purple Stickles on it.  I finished the side of the canvas with some patterned paper.

If you would like to buy your own Paper Smooches stamps, you can find their online store at this link.

I am also entering this in the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where the challenge this month is to use stamps.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Mixed Media Holiday Card

The "monthly Take the Challenge with Mou" on the Faber Castell Design Memory Blog is to make a gift for someone you are thankful for.  This is a card but to many of my friends - my cards made especially for them - is a gift they cherish.  I have several friends that bring them out each year for the holiday. I am so thankful for my friends - they have gotten me through some rough times and helped celebrate the good times.

This is approximately 5.5 inches square.  The design was done on heavy watercolor paper.  The paper has a layer of Gesso on it.  I then took a Gelato and created the blue color for the sky.  I used a darker color to add some shadows in the blue.  I took a stencil and made white dots on the blue with the white Big Pen.  It adds a very subtle depth to the blue.  I stamped some snowflakes in a gray ink or was it grey ink.  The snowman and sentiment are from Cosmo Cricket.  The sentiment was colored with green acrylic paint which was watered down.  The hills of snow started as fabric.  I was lucky enough to find the Glass Bead Glitter Gel and brushed a coating of that on top of my hills.  There is also a light layer on the snowman.  It sparkles.  It is beautiful.  I added some shadows to the hill edges with a grey or gray Gelato.  I had some rub ons and added them randomly to the background and to the snowman. I also splattered some metallic silver paint on the background.

To finish the card, I pop dotted the snowman and sentiment.  I tied a red gingham bow to add balance to the card.  Three small red pearls were added to the snowflakes to add another touch of red to the card.

I am also entering the card in the Mixed Media Card Challenge.  The challenge is a Christmas card.

  Well it was fun getting messy and I have one more Christmas card made.

Thanks for stopping by.

Halloween Mixed Media Frog

It is the part of the month where Mou posts a challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge is to create any project for Halloween or Day of the Dead.  I try to make a few Halloween cards each year.

This was a fun card to make.  I got out my texture paste, gelatos, Big Pens and started to play.  The background is a piece of Basic Grey paper which I applied texture paste to through a stencil.  I colored the texture paste with gelatos.  I wish I would have gotten a brighter orange.  The frog (a stamp from Whipper Snapper Stamps) was stamped and colored with gelatos, Big Pen and some distress ink.  I wanted a stormy looking sky so I put a layer of distress paint and then used purple, grey and dark blue gelatos to make it look stormy.  The weird looking circle is a moon - a very funky colored moon.  The brown earth is the Big Brush pen smeared with my fingers.  I added a little green in the brown.

I matted the image with several colors of cardstock.  Patterned paper was carded to the front.  I added stickers from SRM Stickers for my sentiment and the spider.  The stitches are also stickers.  A spider web was cut with my Silhouette.  I added a bow of fabric.

Eventually I will link this up on the SRM Challenge blog.

I am also entering it into the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - where the challenge is to use fiber, ribbon or twine.

Happy Halloween.  I do so love getting messy.  (Shhh - inside is a big spider hanging down)  The person who this card is for - hates spiders.

World Card Making Day

Today is World Card Making Day.  A holiday for card makers.  I do hope all my card making friends get to spend the day indulging their fun craft.  I will be on the road visiting my Mom but I will be excited when I get home to check everything out.

For today, I made a mixed media Halloween card to go along with the current challenge on Mixed Media Mojo.  Make sure you pop over there to check out the other fun cards.  You should really come play along with us too.

I had so much fun making this card.  This is almost 6 x 6 card so I will have to pay extra postage to mail this card and it will have to go in a bubble envelope.  Hard to tell but it is a black card base.  There is then a layer of purple card stock where I wet the card stock and then tore and curled the edges.  There is then a layer of wonderful plaid paper which you can't hardly see.  Dang.  There is also a strip of the same paper as the paper pieced bosom of Witchy Poo.

This stamp is from Whipper Snapper.  Whipper Snapper is a Wisconsin based stamp company.  Lots of great wonderful stamps.  It is a special treat to go to the store in Brookfield.  The only drawback is at the store you can only buy wood mounted stamps.  But back to the card.  She is stamped on a couple pages of a dictionary that were glued together with gel medium and then a layer of gesso was put down.  She was colored with different mediums:  gelatos, distress paint, distress ink, Big Pen.  After she was done the background was done with distress paint and then two different colors of gelatos to get a stormy sky look.  I mixed embossing paste with gelatos to get purple paste and put it through a stencil around the edges.  Glossy Accents was added to the eyes of everything and to the pumpkin which is a sticker.  SRM Stickers - sentiment and stitches finished off the background.

She was matted with more purple and an orange patterned paper.  I added a fabric strip to the stripe across the card and made a bow from the fabric also.  The matted image was pop dotted onto the front of the card.

Because I used the SRM Stickers on my card and part of their October challenge is Halloween, I am entering my card in that challenge.  I love what the stitch stickers add to the card.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your World Card Making Holiday.  Please stop by and visit us at Mixed Media Mojo and make a mixed media project with a little fabric in it.

Friends With Flair and Mixed Media

It is Friday - and I always try to use some Unity Stamps on Friday to share in their Friends With Flair challenge/share.

I have had this little project in my head for awhile.  I am going to make these for 4 very special women in my life.  They are my Ya Ya's.  We lost one of our Ya Ya's to breast cancer several years ago so it makes them even more special to me.  We kinda like to have a drink or two once in awhile so that is why this is so fun.  Plus one of our Ya Ya's winters in the Keys and several of us have visited her there.

 
This is a set that Unity made exclusively for Archiver's.  We use to have a store in Madison and I do miss being able to have paper therapy when I go to see my Mom.  Now I get paper therapy when I go to see my daughter in the Milwaukee area.  I even have a step out for you today on how I made the project.

The 4 x 4 canvas is covered with a page from an old dictionary.  I apply the dictionary page to the canvas with gel medium.

I then paint over the canvas with gesso.

I had bought a new pad of paper and it had some blue patterned paper in it.  It was basically blue on blue - a very subtle design.  I was hoping to achieve this same look with acrylic paint and then using different stencils and varying shades of blue paint and gelatos.

I did achieve the look I wanted.  It is amazing how the same color on top of the same color but in a slightly different shade can make such a subtle background.  

I then stamped my Santa on more pieces of gessoed dictionary pages.

I colored the Santas with various gelatos, Big Pens and anything else that helped me get the look I wanted.  Santa is dressed in some wackier colors but hey he is having his afternoon toddy.

Ok now I stopped taking pictures.  I am working on trying to do a complete tutorial so you will have to picture the steps in your head.  I stamped the sentiment.  I could not get the 5:00 to turn out so I decided to just write it on the paper myself.  I adhered the image and sentiment with gel medium.  I carefully added gel medium over the top of the entire project to protect it.  I added a few snowflake rub ons and flourishes.  I use to  hoard rub ons so mixed media is a great way to use them.  I added texture paste down at the bottom to make it look like a snowbank.  I also rubbed Stickles over the top to give it some sparkle.  Swiped some gesso around the edges and called it completed.

If you notice, I flipped my canvas again.  The triangles were supposed to be on the left side well they are on the top in the finished project.

I am also placing this on the Monday challenge on Simon Says Stamp which is to use stencils.

I really like how it turned out and I know my Ya Ya's will enjoy it also.

Happy Friday.

Mixed Media Card

Every month the Faber Castell blog Design Memory Craft has a challenge.  Sometimes I am able to play along.  This challenge was an interesting one. Make something in 30 minutes - mixed media in 30 minutes - WHAT - you got to be kidding - but it kept going around and around and around in my head.  Hopefully the 30 minutes does not include my thinking - because we would already be at several hours.

I have been making  a few fall cards and really enjoying myself so wanted to make a fall card.  I keep a container with all my experiments of backgrounds, leftover pieces so I may be able to use them in the future.  I looked through the container and found this piece of watercolor paper which I had colored with gelatos and did not make anything out of it.  I looked at all my tree stamps and came up with an idea.  I have some dies that have a stitched edge on them so I cut my background.  I heat embossed the tree.  I did it on purpose so that it looks like the tree is going off the edge.  I used a piece of leftover back ground to stamp my sentiment.  My layout is very simple.  The image is pop dotted on the card front.  After I was done, I thought it needed to look like fall so I got out some bottles of acrylic paint and a toothpick and made little leaves.  The tree stamp is from Penny Black and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

This month on the Mixed Media Card Challenge Blog it is to make an Autumn Colored card with the optional add on of metal or leaves.  Hopefully abstract dots of acrylic paint count as my leaves.  (Insert grin here).

I am also going to enter it into the monthly challenge on the Operation Write Home Card Blog where the challenge that is sponsored by Our Daily Bread Designs.  They will pay shipping costs for at least two boxes - so we need to get 50 entries into this contest.

I like how the card turned out - once I had it thought out it was a quick card to make.  I may even make some more like it.  Of course, now I will have to make backgrounds.

Enjoy your Sunday.  The cleaning bug bit me yesterday - but did I clean something that showed - no but I did get rid of bunch of stuff.  I do need to get groceries today.

Friday - Time to Play With Unity Stamps

On Friday I try to post a card using some of my Unity Stamps an share it on Friends with Flair.  I am trying to use more of my Unity stamps but what do I do - but grab a stamp I have used before.

I decided I wanted to do a mixed media card - I love to play and get messy.

I am actually planning ahead - my youngest daughter celebrates her wedding anniversary in late September.  Don't you love those falling hearts that are really leaves.  It will probably gag Carrie - oh well.  The focal point of the card is a book page adhered to a piece of multi media paper with gel medium.  Gesso was added over the top.  The blue and green were gelatos.  The green did have other inks added to get a little more variation in the green grass.  The tree was heat embossed and it was colored in with distress paints and a Faber Castell Big Pen.  I added some embossing paste dots around the card.  The edges of all the papers were distressed.  I also wiped paint across some of the bottom mat which had been sanded also.  The sentiment and image are pop dotted.

I am also entering this card in to the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  The challenge is Scratched Up.  Distressing, rubbing paint and ink over the paper, sanding paper - I think I nailed Scratched Up.

I also found another Mixed Media Challenge Site - Mixed Media and Watercolor - seem to be the hot picks in the world of card making right now.  Their monthly challenge is to use Stencils and Pastes.  I used a stencil  and embossing paste for my dots on the front of my card.

After I took the picture I did add glossy accents to all the hearts.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Friday and week end.

Graduation and Mixed Media

My granddaughter graduates from high school tomorrow so I tried making a card and nothing came together - I think it was because this canvas was in my head and heart.

I am entering it in the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell Design Memory Craft blog.  The challenge this month is to mix and match your mediums.  My interpretation is to use lots of different products and that is what happened with me in creating this project.

It is a 6 x 6 canvas.  Several layers on the canvas because I did not like the first background I made.  That is the glory of gesso, gel medium and paper.  You can start all over again and again if you have to.  I layered on patterned paper with gel medium  I then applied gesso over the top.  After the gesso dried I used my gelatos to add color (Emily's favorite colors are purple and teal).  I used a stencil and added embossing paste and from there I went with a polka dot background theme.  Unfortunately I do not know who makes the girl stamp.  Unmounted rubber.  The sentiment is by Penny Black.  I colored the image with gelatos, watercolor pencils.  The girl and sentiment were stamped on dictionary pages which had gesso on them.  I colored the paper for the sentiment before stamping.  The girl I colored after I stamped.  All this was added to the canvas with gel medium.  I used another stencil and just colored with a brush and picked up the color off the end of a gelato and applied it in the circle.  Very soft background.  I finished it off with with random rub ons and other rubber stamps.

A friend shared it on facebook and one of her friends wants me to make her one.  Gee what do you charge for something like this.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Watercolor Class Assignments

This is another card I made for my watercolor class.  Look - I have made it to Lesson 3 and 4.  I colored the stamp with Gelatos and then sprayed with water and  stamped.  I did come back in and add some more detail with a water brush and the Gelatos.  The flower is from Hero Arts and the sentiment is from Penny Black.  I then splattered the paint mixture around the background.  Since I had no cardstock to match the flower, I colored around the edge of some watercolor to make a mat.  I did the same thing for my sentiment.
This was the card I hand delivered to my Mom for Mother's Day.