an old bat...

is anyone else enjoying the increasingly chilly weather? i MUCH prefer cooler weather and i always marvel at the leaves changing color - never ceases to amaze me!  couple that with the new season of all the tv shows and i am a happy camper!  i have been checking out some of the new ones - a fave is Revolution.  not so much because it is so good - it is mediocre - but because the whole premise just SO intrigues me!!!  as much of a tech junkie as i am i am also aware that a reset button might not necessarily be a bad thing.  of course i would also like to think if it happened i would be a total bad ass!  truth is i am probably past that stage at this point in my life but i can dream right?!  we also watched the pilot of 666 park avenue - scared the hell out of me!  not sure if i will be able to watch again....i don't do sports OR reality type shows though.  anyone else watching revolution?  i would LOVE to hear your take on it!

fall also means halloween is coming!we were doing a little shopping in Kohls this weekend and kevin spotted a sign in the halloween decor area and said my mom would LOVE it - you can see it HERE.  i grabbed it and was carrying it around and then it occurred to me i could make something that looked way better so i put it back and got to work!  here is what i came up with:

the best part is i didn't spend a dime on my version!  i already had the wooden plaque.  i started by adhering two french book pages across the front.  then i swiped on a bit of gesso in spots to cover some of the book pages.  i sprayed them liberally with water and then added some of the NEW Silks colors from Luminarte - I used Spiced Pumpkin and Sunflower - every one of the new colors just released by Dreaming In Color is absolutely deeLISH!

adding the water helps dilute the paint so it blends easier without diluting either the color OR the incredible shimmer Luminarte is known for.  The areas with Gesso have a lighter color whereas the bare book pages soak in the color and keep it vibrant.  Because Silks are a glaze the wording is still easily visible.

Once dry, I sponged on some pale sage acrylic paint and then added a darker sage using bubble wrap to get sort of distressed looking dots.  I used Black Silks around the edges.  Once everything was dry I cut out the bat silhouette and printed off the wording and added them using matte medium.  i sprayed it all with a sealer to protect it and added a hanger on the back.  i think my mom will love it!  what do you think???  and no, she won't be offended - she is fun like that!

...an artist

hi all!

it has been a really rough couple weeks around my house but so far i am hanging in there.  lots of health issues i am still attempting to sort through and it can make the day to day all messy. but i thought i would come post another of the journal pages I did for my mixed media class on color me creative:

this one was a lot of fun to work on and i love how it turned out!

i love anything with birds so i thought i would try my hand at drawing a few to use here. 

i have been very busy with an assignment and some goodies using an art fibers kit and scrumptious Liminarte Silks - learning lots of new things and having fun along the way!  i can't wait to share with y'all what i have been up to!

new cmc challenge and a free digi!

hello and happy monday!  ok so probably not happy about monday but hopefully you're all happy anyway! 

i am very excited today.  i am sitting in my new work space in my family room - a bigger space.  why?  BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MORE TOY AREAS ON THE MAIN FLOOR OF THE HOUSE!!!  that's right.  no more toys.  i spent more than 12 hours straight yesterday clearing ALL of pezza's toys from the main floor, brought them down to the basement, sorted, organized, threw away and set aside for consignment.  i have been wanting to do this for months and finally yesterday i just bit the bullet and did it.  i filled up one gigantic contractor size trash bag with crap to throw away and set aside a few things to donate.  the rest of the toys are set up so it is now easy for her to find what she wants to play with rather than everything being mixed up in a huge jumble of crazy.  the next consignment sale is in the spring and between now and then whatever she doesn't touch for several months straight will quietly disappear into the consign pile.  i have to do this very stealth - like as she is a hoarder in the making.  she cannot throw away anything!  i have to sneak the freakin grocery receipts into the trash because she becomes attached to them on the way to the car.  it is a little disturbing.  i see an appearance on an episode of Hoarders in our future...

today a new mixed media challenge kicks off over on Color Me Creative and i hope lots of folks will join us! 

Our challenge is to use a stamped of digi image in your mixed media piece AAAAAAANNND we have prizes!

Here is my page from my art journal:

I drew the girl myself - the digi is below for anyone who would like to download it.  She is printed on copy paper and colored with prisma pencils.  while copy paper is not the ideal surface for colored pencil artwork i like it for mixed media pieces because it is so thin that it blends right into the the background without noticeable edges.  unfortunately i had a bit of an unexpected occurrence here - you can see the green in her face.  when the matte medium i used to glue her to the page touched the Silks paint beneath it re-wet the paint which then soaked through my thin paper a bit.  not sure on a fix yet BUT something I will keep in mind in the future!

The page itself uses a variety of techniques and mediums and is one of the pages I teach in my Art Journaling class on CMC.

so what about the prizes???  this month our prize package is a $20 gift certificate to Paper Temptress AND a $15 gift certificate for digi images from Guylou's Inimitability!!!!

and of course as promised here is the little girl for you to download:

let me know if you have trouble downloading her!  if you use her i would love to see - come back here and post a link for me!

cmc challenge - it's BRIGHT!

happy fall!

oh how i am LOVING the weather these days!  and the leaves are starting to change - one of my most fave things ever!  never ceases to amaze me!  there are some trees in particular in our area that are absolutely brilliant!  once they start falling pez and i will take walks and collect them - i really try to bring her attention to things like the leaves changing.

hubby and i sat down to go over our calendar for october and WOW!  does EVERYTHING need to happen ALL in october???  and to top it all off he is working out of town for october so that always stinks.  we have our last camping trip of the year before putting the camper away for the winter this month too.  we are heading back down to kings dominion for their halloween set up.  i used to do a haunted house every year down in missouri and i have not done one yet since moving to va - i so miss them!  i have a groupon ticket to a haunted forest nearby but it expires so quickly we may not even get a chance to use it! boo!  AND pezza has decided she wants to go pick pumpkins at a farm instead of going to target.

My project today is for the new coloring challenge up over on the Color Me Creative site - the challenge is to use BRIGHT colors on your image

I made all three papers myself using Luminarte Primary Elements pigment powders and Luminarte Silks in a variety of ways.  Interested in learning how to do some mixed media too?  Check out my classes on the Color Me Creative site.

all the DTs used the cute little monster stamps from SCACD - isn't she fun?!  I colored her with colored pencils as always - I teach colored pencils classes at Color Me Creative as well!

now i am off to get my crazy weekend started!  first - pumpkin cake with homemade cream cheese buttercream frosting, then farmers market and hopefully - some major cleanout in preparation for my first foray into a children's consignment sale - because WOW do we need to clean out pezza's stuff.  she is a hoarder in the making so this is going to be a serious battle!

happy weekend y'all!

art journal joy

hello all!
happy fall!  i know it's here where i live anyway - love love love it!  we are having a great week here despite me being sick because we are finally getting a break from vet visits and everyone is looking pretty healthy.  at the end of this post i will have kitty pics for those interested!

we are gradually getting our schedule back into shape with school starting.  she seems to be doing well so far.  we are also doing girl scouts and gymnastics.  we'll see how that all plays out.

i have been keeping myself very busy with some online classes Suzanne asked me to teach at Color Me Creative as y'all know.  You can sign up HERE.  The basics class and card/scrapbookers class are both live and the art journaling class will go live on friday!  today's project is one of the pages from the art journaling class:

i love how this page turned out and i think it pairs up well with the saying from St. Francis of Assisi.  i love the freedom of playing in my art journals.

This page also incorporates acrylic paint which is the current challenge in the Mixed Media challenge group also on Color Me Creative.i would love to have more folks join in over there!  just click HERE to go to the group.  the challenge runs until September 30th.  a new challenge will start on the 1st and we will be giving away prizes!

now here's some kitty pics for ya:

i have a photo area set up in my studio.  ALL of the cats seem to think it is the cat sleeping area.  here is tiger - our big old maine coon and the one who gave us a scare by being suddenly unable to walk a couple weeks ago.  she is much better now but pretty arthritic which is common in these big cats.

and this is fluffy - tiger's sister.

don't let my art journal get in your way or anything there fluff....

baby kayla, a foster who came to us super sick and is now doing much better.  she will even be at the adoption event this weekend!  she sticks very close to me - in this case a little too close!

Next up - Peter and savannah

savannah came to us with 2 very very sick tiny kittens and she was very sick herself.  we were unable to save her kittens but we did save her.  she and peter, who came to us with kayla, have become great friends!  savannah has only a stub of a tail and hops around like a billy goat so i refer to her as the billy goat, hubby refers to her as Boxcar Sally - poor little thing!  peter is amazing.  the only one who wasn't sick and boy does he have charm and personality!  he also has a black moustache and goatee making him quite distinguished (or comical) looking.  They will both be able to go to the adoption event as well.

bubba, our own Maine coon baby we adopted last year, has not been too sure how he feels about all these foster kittens but he is finally deciding they might actually be quite fun to play with and he is always very curious about their antics

i'll take all the good thoughts y'all can give for us to find good homes for these and all the other foster kittens this weekend! 

coloring with cmc - join us!

hello folks!

i swear i don't know if i am coming or going anymore!  i am typing this one handed holding a super sick kitten on my shoulder.  i have been at my vet's ever day, sometimes twice for more than 2 weeks! my poor little furry babies!

in between vet trips and fighting with pezza over well, just about everything i have managed to spend some time in the studio.  i am WAY beyond late posting my card for the current CMC coloring challenge - it is mostly markers but of course i use my trusty (and cheap) colored pencils!  the challenge is to use fall colors and our sponsor for prizes is Bugaboo Stamps!  I used one on my project:

isn't it so cute!!!  that amazing shimmer across the bottom - none other than Luminarte of course!  check out the full line at Dreaming In Color!  She also just added 25 new colors to the Silks line and there are 4 new Twinkling H2Os.  I also used papers made in my next Mixed Media class on CMC - it is designed specifically for card makers and scrapbookers. it is part one of a three part series - you can take 1, 2 or all 3!  it will be available for sign up next week!

ACK!!!

completely forgot!
i did not give the new Mix It Up Challenge Design Team members a proper introduction!  I am joined by several super talented ladies and great friends - Nadja, Melanie and Tina!  do go visit their delightful blogs and say hello!!!