mixing it up at CMC!

hi all!

today is school picture day.  always a total toss up with my kids and pez is not likely to be any different.  she has a gorgeous smile UNTIL you say "smile" - then she makes this crazy face...pretty sure that's what we will be seeing when the pics come home!  she also left here with her hair up in a cute ponytail on top of her head which she refers to as a palm tree but who knows what state it will be in by the time the camera snaps! 

today kicks off a new mixed media challenge on color me creative - this one is to use BLING - any kind any way just bling it up!  i did a steampunk-ish journal page ala tim holtz and make it crafty:

it started with a little tutorial i saw on tim's blog for the faux metal panels - so super easy!  check it out on his blog HERE!  i used some metal foil tape i got from home depot - plumbing dept i think.  I started with a glimmering background of Luminarte Twinkling H20S.  Then added the metal panels.

Next i colored this amazing steampunk treehouse from Make it Crafty using colored pencils (sign up for classes on Color Me Creative).

i finished it off with some blingy swirls and gears

I made the swirls using a stencil and some Viva Decor Modeling paste.  While it was still wet I sprinkled on some gorgeous Art Glitter Gala Glitz - ultra fine glass glitter, glass glitter shards and glittering microbeads.  A final sprinkling of additional ultrafine glitter filled in any blank spots.

so what can YOU do?  join in the challenge and show us - you could be picked to win prizes!  A $20 gift certificate to Paper Temptress and a $15 gift certificate to Guylou's Inimitability!

new challenge for cmc!

happy super chilly saturday!  oh i am so glad to be done with the heat of summer!!!  this post will be quick because i am off super early on a little adventure with my crafting buddy Suzanne Dean.  we are taking an ALL DAY class at the Queen's Ink with the always fabulous Wendy Vechi.  and i got an email from ms. suzanne with stern warnings about not being late to her house this morning for the drive up!

the new challenge is up over on Suzanne's site - color me creative - we were to use a touch of red on our images.  the challenge is sponsored by tiddlyinks - i have always loved Christy's images!  here is my card:

i used my colored pencils for my image of course!  with a touch of Luminarte Silks on her wings for shimmer.

My background papers are mixed media papers you can learn to make in my mixed media class for cardmakers over on color me creative and they too have bunches of shimmer!

I finished it off with a neat little tulle flower/sun i made up top!

and now i better get my butt in gear so i can get outta here!!!!  i sure hope y'all will join us on CMC for our touch of red challenge!!!!!

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!

magazine fun!

hooray for weekends!

pezza and i had a slumber party in my room last night because poor hubby had to work all night (after working all day).  his boss really does not know how good they have it with him.  so we were up for awhile in the studio and then eating breakfast but now we are back in bed still in our jammies - me playing on here and her playing with my ipod (which she thinks is hers :P)  i have had us on a pretty strict schedule during the weeks so weekends are free.  at the moment we are playing "let's pretend i am a teenager talking on the phone to my boyfriend."  dear god help me.  when i was faced with raising two boys alone i thought i was going to do it RIGHT.  they weren't going to do all the gross crazy things associated with males - like pee on the toilet seat and amuse themselves with farting at each other.  after all there would be no men around to teach them such terrible behaviors.  i realized REAL quick that these things are engraved on the male dna.  i am now learning their are things engraved on the female dna too.  it starts at birth.  of course the talking on the phone to her boyfriend is cute now.  i will likely be less amused at her teen age behaviors when she actually IS a teen!

i have been getting more and more into some art journaling blogs lately and wish i could find as many mixed media challenges as i used to have card challenges to join in.  but i have found one i like at the art journal cafe.   this time around the challenge is magazines.  so i dug up a few i had lying around and looked for some inspiration.

i loved this outdoor table setting scene.  i made my background first,,,

I began by adhering a sheet from an old music book to my gesso'd page.  Next I dabbed some buff colored acrylic page around the edges to soften the stark difference between the white gesso and yellowed page.  Next I sponged on some bright Luminarte Silks around the page.  Silks are absolutely luscious and you can get them all at SCACD.

Next i did my magazines transfers using gel medium.  obviously too much gel medium as you can see by the wrinkles :P  i never quite understood why you would do image transfers as opposed to just glueing the image onto the page but it is actually really cool.  the image is more subdued and fades into and becomes part of the page.  i do wish i had done the transfers BEFORE the Silks though!  but overall a fun technique that i think i will explore more!

if you want to see some REALLY cool examples of magazine transfers head over to the art journal cafe post - can't wait to see what the next challenge is!

defining an artist...yet again...

oh. my. goodness!

time flies when you're having fun - is it really 3:15???  we did a trip to wegmans today - i don't know if their less expensive but considering all of the specialty stuff they have that i added to the cart i think it would still be a pricier option than good old super walmart.  you just can't beat a super walmart.

after lunch i turned on the food network - i used to watch it constantly.  paula dean was on - love her!  so pezza was watching intently and when paula added TWO sticks of butter to a rum sauce she was making pezza squealed and said it was her her kinda show! i swear she cracks me up sometimes! 

Pezza and i worked together in the studio this morning doing the challenge over on Art Journal Cafe - i am trying to do some mixed media challenges the way i used to do card challenges - i love doing challenges!  it was a color inspiration challenge and my page is something i felt i needed to get off my chest:

i hate when folks start splitting hairs over whether a person is a crafter or an artist.  but it's worse when it is your mother.  of course she is also the woman who told me i would never get to go to college after i was divorced with two very small kids - so i went anyway right on up through a masters degree with honors!  and no she is not using reverse psychology.

here is the color inspiration we were given:

 I began by using distress inks to add color to my background.  next i used some pale yellow Claudine Hellmuth acrylic paint and round sponges to stamp on the circles.

i also used this very cool rubber stamp - a silhouette of a woman - it is one of the Blank Canvas Profiles from SCACD.  I thought it was perfect - that is me thinking Really mom?

i used some sequin waste and white acrylic paint to add some flower shapes and then decided to use a part of the sequin waste itself because it is so shimmery and pretty!  i decided i needed some blue in here so i mixed a little Dutch Iris Primary Elements into my gel medium before using it to glue the piece of sequin waste on.

this is the definition of artist on the bottom of the page.  and personally i think  it fits me just fine!  but it's no wonder i didn't discover my artistic abilities until well into adulthood.  i was always told i just wasn't an artist - it was not meant to be.  now that i have a daughter i make sure to do the opposite and i encourage her in lots of different directions.  including being an artist - her page for this challenge will be posted here tomorrow - i am quite impressed with her and she did it all by herself - all i did was provide the colors and materials!

OMG i won i won!!!!!!

a few days ago i posted my 4 entries in the Mother and Daughter creations contest. There were three challenges plus a bonus and each challenge had a prize plus they picked one entrant for their design team. well i won the bonus challenge with my "Wishing for Spring" layout - {super grin} - what a thrill. check out the other winners: http://mothersanddaughters.typepad.com/tams_page/ and their super creations.

can't wait to get my goody pack!!

well lots to do today :P got more studio g series 10 in so i got to get them back out :)