garden of shimmer

hi all!

no chit chat today - just bizness!  i am joining the SCACD girls for the latest release - Susana Loves Stamps presents the Eye of Dreams Collection!  You should have arrived here from Lou Mac's blog. 

I got to work with this little cutie!

Her name is Garden Eyes.  I colored her with my polychromos pencils

her flower garden is done with Luminarte Primary Elements artist pigment powders and one of the newest Crafter's Workshop stencils by Julie Fei-Fen Balzer - you can get them at SCACD!

I began by mixing up some shimmering mist using Primary Elements, gum arabic and water in a mister.  I misted the paper with sunburst and summer breeze.  Next I mixed Blushing Rose Primary Elements with Dreamweaver Translucent embossing paste and scraped it over the stencil and lifted.  Gorgeous shimmering pink embossing paste flowers!

my simmering glass tile is actually a piece of chipboard from a maya road collection - i inked it, covered it in UTEE and added primary elements on top along with more UTEE - look for a video on this technique and more soon!

Be sure to mention that our International Friends can purchase these stamps at Quixotic Paperie:

now head on over to my long time buddy Sandie's blog for the next stop on the hop.

luminous garden

hi all!

i am hard at work on lots of things right now but nothing to post as of yet.  however, i do have my second guest post up on the Luminarte blog - i hope you will check it out! here is a peek at it for ya!  we will be doing a giveaway over there on friday so be sure you don't miss out on that!

guest artist announcement

hi all!

guess what!  i was asked to be a guest designer for a month on the Luminarte blog!  and y'all know how much i love me some luminarte shimmering goodness!  so i hope you will all head over there and check it out and leave me some love!

also don't forget about the two workshops i will be teaching in baltimore May 19th!  there is still time to sign up on the workshop page!

video for you - twinks!

hi all!

yet another amazing day in NoVA!  did more yard work - the front gardens are nearly done and it is looking fantastic!  hubby came out and was cutting some wood for a garage project and he cut some of the things i have been wanting so i was THRILLED about that!  can't wait to play with those.  we have a bit more detail cutting to do though.

some of you may have seen a card i posted awhile back and i said i would do a video tutorial for you...well i finally got it done!

 isn't she shimmery?!  well i can show you how - it's so easy!

 you can use your twinkling H2Os and colored pencils together!

 check it out and let me know what you think!

mix it up with shimmer!

hi all!

good GRIEF the days are just flying by! you know how they say (yea "they") that time goes faster the older you get? at this rate i will completely MISS the second half of it :P the weather has been SO gorgeous here i have spent a good part of my time outside lately.  JUST about killed myself getting my gardens in order.  but oh they are looking good.  still more to be done though.  then poor pezza got really sick.  monday morning she got up, laid on the couch and pretty much stayed there with out hardly talking.  as we got closer to lunch i was REALLY suspicious so i took her temp - yep 101!  went through a stomach bug apparently but is all good today!

while she was sick we watched 2 kitten episodes of too cute on animal planet and i just couldn't stand it.  i have wanted another preggie momma cat but hubby was not too excited about the idea.  well today i asked again and he said YES!  so i am going to let the cat coordinator know as cat season is fast approaching!

yesterday we kicked off the next challenge in the mix it up altered art group on color me creative - use SHIMMER!  any kind will do!  of course i have pulled out my luminarte twinkling h2os:

i drew the branches and birds after seeing a tutorial linked on pinterest.  i thought they were so cute and simple so i gave it a shot. 

they were especially perfect to do an art journal page with one of my life mottos.  some people call it flying by the seat of my pants.

i call it faith - huge copious amounts of faith in my higher power.  i have not had an easy walk to get to where i am now - in fact i have defied some pretty daunting odds :)

after i drew the picture i painted it with luminarte twinkling H2Os.  truly amazing shimmering watercolors in lots of colors and so easy to use!

i used some claudine hellmuth stamps and acrylic paint to stamp some leaves and then added some cut out leaves done on my cricut.  i finished it off with little prima flowers (remember these simple ones from back in "the old days?") and some white gel pen.  i will be taking Dion Dior's Mastering Twinks class in April and am very excited - i encourage y'all to check it out!  it's a great price AND Dion is incredibly talented!

mixed media flower girl

hi all!

i wanted to share something my fabulous friend Somphane said that has been on my mind for the last week.  a bunch of us moms had gotten the kids together to play and we were hanging out chatting and of course the subject of weight gain came up.  and somphane said - why worry about it.  we aren't little girls we are women and we have women's bodies now which come with curves.  she said we shouldn't be worried about the fact that we aren't as slim as we were when we were younger we should be proud of our curviness and proud of being a woman.  that has made such a profound effect on my self image!  she is brilliant!  my entire perspective has changed because she is right!  because in reality no amount of dieting and exercise is going to get me back down to the weight i was in my early twenties! i can be healthy yes - but i will never be the stick figure i was  years ago!

 i decided to take a break from my "work" stuff and just play in my studio the past couple days.  i am really venturing back to my roots and doing more mixed media stuff as opposed to the color an image, add layers, add flowers kind of stuff.  {though i AM missing my die cutting so i need to get back to my black cat next!}

i am taking several online classes right now - christie tomlinson, suzi blu, dion dior - and learning tons!  i am especially loving my suzi blu classes and today's project is a direct result of what i have been learning.

i am entering it in the following challenges:

• creative card crew - vintage
• papertake weekly - for the girls
• 4 crafty chicks - chicks rule

and in the true spirit of going green i did this piece on one of the large wood blocks from a SU stamp - i never mount them on wood.  the best part - i drew this little girl myself!  yep i sure did!  better yet - i am sharing her with all of you - you can get her as a free digi image at the end of this post!

i began by adhering torn strips of a book page to the wooden base with gel medium.i painted the bottom green and the top blue using Luminarte Silks (fern & Sky Blue) - you can get them at SCACD.  the silks are an acrylic glaze meaning there are translucent so the book page strips shows through.  once dry i wanted to tone things down a bit so i swiped on some luminarte Golden Opal primary elements powder mixed with gel medium.  LOVE this stuff - i can mix it into so many things depending on what i am doing.  I layered on some circles & the scallop border using claudine hellmuth's acrylic paints and foam stamps - which i ADORE!  also stamped a wildflower sillhouette from a CTMH stamp set using brown staz on ink.

as i said, i drew the little girl myself then inked her and scanned her - i didn't want to color right on my original in case i messed it up or wanted to use it again.  then i printed her out and colored her with colored pencils (polychromos).  last, i added the embellishments - some glittered skittles, the vintage crocheted border and some teeny prima flowers from 100 years ago :P  i needed something more than just the flowers at her feet so i mixed Luminarte Moss Green primary elements and gel medium to get a thick paste.  i just dabbed it around her feet in a "pile" and then stuck the flowers in it and dabbed some more in the flower centers.

when I drew her i knew i would be putting a flower in her hands so i did not originally draw anything in her hands but i put a little flower in them for y'all!

feel free to download her and use her but do not sell her!  let me know if you use her so i can check out what you did!

class time ladies!

hi all!

we are having the most unbelievable weather up here in northern VA - it was 80 DEGREES yesterday afternoon!  and it isn't even march 15th!  i. was. wearing. SHORTS!  hahhahahha!  of course this probably means a long hot summer and brutal hurricane season for my mom and my family down south but for now we are really enjoying it.  my headaches have been much better (though not completely gone but manageable) and i even got out in the gardens and started working on those sunday and yesterday.  pezza and i went on our first garden center outing of the spring YAY!  oh so many things i want!  however technically we are not supposed to start planting up here until may 1 so i will have to settle for getting all of the clean up and prep work done!

i have NOT been spending a whole lot of time in my studio but i hope to change that first thing this morning!  in the meantime i wanted to put up another post about the classes i have coming up in baltimore in may since it seems very few people had been getting my blog!

the group The Outlawz is hosting a retreat May 18, 19 & 20 and i am teaching classes there!  live and in the flesh!  hahhahha!  i will be teaching a colored pencil class AND a beginners mixed media class!  you can get all the details of classes on my Workshops Page and all of the retreat info on the outlawz page.

i sure hope to see some of you there!

Mixing it up with stencils this time!

hi all!

i am SO SO happy to be getting glimpses of spring here in northern VA!  yesterday pezza and i went to home depot in search of 3 pansy plants to put in the planter on our front porch and somehow came home with 3 large trees (waving hi to hubby - don't kill me).  we built our house 7 years ago and i said we should put trees in right away to they can start growing and we will eventually get some shade.  well every year we don't do it so now i look at my neighbors trees that DID go in 7 years ago and have tree envy.  oh and hubby we wanna go back for some fruit trees too but i can't get those in my truck.  i can't believe i got these 3 in my truck - it was precarious i must say.  on this same streak - after pezza got home from school we spent the entire rest of the day working in the gardens doing spring clean up.  we got a composter a couple weeks ago too so i filled that baby up yesterday and cannot wait to get my own compost out of there!  i am not overly hippy-ish but it DOES feel good to be putting all of that stuff in there plus my kitchen scraps and NOT going out and buying it.  and no my headache is not gone but i am sick of it and wanted to be out in my gardens and so i just went for it.  by the end of the day i was really hurting but i was determined :)

today pezza has an evaluation with the public school system in preparation for kindergarten.  they can help recommend what i should do with her issues as well as help navigate the public school system regarding her issues.  not sure how much it will help but i am trying everything i can make use of.  after that we are hitting my chiropractor so i am hoping he can provide some headache relief. 

i wanted to pass along something i discovered yesterday too.  i have a good friend and neighbor who is having major surgery this week and she has 3 kids pezza's age and under.  she will not only be hospitalized for at least a week but then she will be in bed for at least a month.  we all want to help her and her family and another friend set things up on a site called Lotsa Helping Hands.  what an amazing idea this website is!  it helps get everyone coordinated and scheduled with ease and tailors that help to what the person has requested they need.

so what else have i been up to (seriously right - i DO sleep....)  we have kicked off the THIRD challenge in the Mix It Up mixed media group over on Color Me Creative. this time we are using stencils!  any stencils can be used - my faves are Crafter's Workshop of course!  i have two projects done.  today i have an art journal page:

i had the background done from some playtime a couple weeks ago.  i covered part of the page with strips of book pages and then sprayed some green mist.  then i laid my stencils done and used Viva Decor modeling cream.  while it was wet i quickly sprinkled green microbeads into the modeling paste. 

once dry i doodles a bit around the shapes.  my doodling sucks but i really want to get better.  the stamped piece is done with Distress Embossing powders and a collage stamp. 

i did the lettering on my computer and printed it out.

i have several videos posted on the group showing the many ways you can use stencils.  head on over and join in!  you can make anything - tags, cards, scrapbook pages, art journal pages.  we would love to have you!

here kitty kitty...

hi all!

we are having the hands down weirdest winter ever here in northern va.  yesterday it could not decide whether it was going to snow or be sunny...or snow...or be sunny...at one point i was driving down the highway and it was clearly snowing on the OTHER side of the road but not mine... and in three days it is going to be 70 degrees.

in yet another attempt to find the source of my headaches i went and had my hair thinned out.  i kept telling her no do more.  for those who have not met me i have enough hair for 5 people and i look REE-dic-u-lous with short hair so that is NOT an option.

 that is ALOT of hair!  and i still LOTS left.  and no, it didn't work *sniff sniff*.

so onto some fun.  can't let a severe headache stand between me and my craft room! hahhahah!  this is my very first attempt at a full project suzi blu style from her La La La class.  i am not overly happy with it but hey - you have to start somewhere right???

the best part is that i am learning SO much in the classes so that's what counts most!  i drew the little kitty image myself.

and here are a couple pics of my real kitty's

look how big my baby bubba kitten is getting!  and look at those maine coon tails!

he decided her road was a perfect little kitty nest.

the next challenge has begun for Mix It Up over on over on Color Me Creative.  the challenge this time is to use stencils on your project - use one that is ready made like the ones from Crafters Workshop or make your own!  i will have my samples up tomorrow!

fun with suzi blu

hi all!

boy am i feeling my workout!  OUCH!  but hey it means i did something while i was down in the weight room right?!  i think while he is out of town though i will stick to the treadmill.

so wanna see what i did on my "day off" saturday?  i spent some time on one of Suzi Blu's online classes Petite Dolls - worth EVERY penny and then some!  i am SO in love with her style and even got to meet her at CHA.  She has a stamp line with Stampavie that just came out too!  i am only half way through lesson 1 but here are some shots from my sketch book:

this one is my fave - unfortunately i apparently struggle with consistency :P  here are some others:

 good start for a little boy :)

i must admit i am having SO much fun with these!  i never thought i could ever draw but i just needed to draw things that i wanted instead of drawing the way my mom and brother draw!  i am hoping to work on these some more and maybe even turn them into finished projects!

i also want to let y'all know my craft room is being featured on favecrafts today!  how cool is that?!?! so be sure to head over and check it out!  hopefully you will pick up some ideas or tips!

some videos for you!

hi all!

i am SOOO excited!  because today is the second day i have not had a headache!  pain free all day yesterday!  woohoo!  even dragged myself downstairs to work out again with hubby (hating every minute of it but something has got to be done...)  one thing we did that i believe has helped tremendously is set up a better work space for me and my laptop.  i still need something to set the laptop up on to lift it more to eye level but i found the perfect thing at amazon.  also got a separate mouse and keyboard and am sitting in a more comfortable chair.

hubby was nice enough to let me take the day off yesterday - meaning he was on the frontlines with little miss insanity including taking her to a birthday party. it was my last taste of freedom for awhile :P  he will be at a porsche something or other most of today, working all day monday and then out of town again for the rest of the week.  pezza has been back on good behavior after the unfortunate biting incident at school and subsequent insane temper tantrum.

so what do i have for ya today?  luscious luminarte again!  my friend susana has brought the Silks and the Primary Elements artist pigments in to her store, SCACD, and she asked me to do a couple videos for her.  these are incredible for making gorgeous backgrounds like i did for this card:

i also used some on the chipboard flower - SCACD has some awesome chipboard shapes to choose from!  the sheet music stamp is also available at SCACD.

mmmmmmmmm shimmery!  the adorable image is a SCACD exclusive by Sylvia Zet - Veritas.  Love those sylvia zet images!  She is colored with colored pencils of course!

here are a few of my favorite pieces from the videos:

and here are the videos: