a birthday girl...

Hey!

Our first trip out in the camper for the season was a HUGE success!  We always go somewhere fairly close to home for our first trip out JUST in case of disaster.  This time we went to Luray VA about 1 1/2 hours south of us.  The campground was gorgeous and peaceful.  We spent Saturday hiking to the highest point in Shenendoah National Park, roasted marshmallows and just relaxed!  Below are some of the highlights!

 

I have been running around like a mad woman since we got back though - seems I have three day's worth of stuff jammed into every single day lately!  But I am pausing for a moment to reflect...

About a million years ago blog land was a much much smaller place and somehow I stumbled onto this blog or she stumbled onto mine - I forget which way it happened.  Anyway, one of us suddenly realized we lived right near each other and a fun ride of a friendship began!  Me and Suzanne Dean {Scrapbitz} have had quite our share of adventures and I am happy to be joining in on her birthday blog hop today!  {mine is tomorrow - isn't that funny?!?!}  All of the girls on her Design Team are highlighting her fave color in our projects - Aqua/Teal.  Today I have some balloons to wish her a Happiest of Birthdays!

My background is layers of oil pastel, acrylic paint and turquoise glitter in light and dark shades of aquas.

Next I added a trio of balloons with India Ink and shaded them using my Neocolor crayons.

Of COURSE I had to finish it off with a black accent!  I used Pearl Viva Modeling Cream and a Splash of Color stencil and then I sprinkled liberally with Black ultra fine glitter.  I love the raised lava-like surface it gave me.

Your next stop on the hop is my sweet and talented friend Linda Payne.  If you have stumbled into the hop on accident and want to start at the beginning head over to my wild & wonderful friend Tina G's blog!

Happy Birthday Suzanne!  MWAH!

cats - man's best friend!

hello!

Have you been to the coloring challenge over on Color Me Creative this week?  Suzanne has challenged us to color texture - like fur, wood, dirt.  I will admit it is not one of my strong suits but I gave it a shot with an adorable kitty (of course) in my art journal:

 I am working again in my new Stillman & Birn journal - it did NOT disappoint!  This thing is AMAZING!

The loads of shimmer are from Luminarte paints of course - Silks actually.  To get them to move and blend I misted my page with water first and then loaded on the Silks - NO problem for this journal!

Next I added some texture using Viva Decor crystal gel and a Crafter's Workshop stencil - more wet media and still no buckling and warping.  AND it was easier to do this than it is on other journal papers because despite the wet Silks the paper was still laying flat!

Once dry I sponged over everything with more Silks in Gold.  It has been overcast here and I have had a terrible time capturing the Luminarte sparkle for you!  In addition the Crystal Gel also has sparkle - love that stuff!  I added some finishing touches with a black pen and a gold Viva Decor Paper Pen.

My little image is from Stamp Fairy.  Stamp Fairy is also the sponsor for the CMC challenge so join in and you might win a $10 gift certificate for some of their cute images!

I have been working in the Stillman & Birn BETA series wirebound journal which is the best one for working with wet media.  They have 5 different Series or types of books in both wire bound and hardbound as well as various sizes.  In addition, a Zeta series will be released this month which will be even better for the wet media techniques I love.  If you want to learn more about them and decide which one(s) are right for you check out all the info on their website - Stillman & Birn.  I also have a Gamma Series hardbound book which is wonderful for sketching and drawing.  I don't actually work for them!  My brother caught a demo of them in his local art store and encouraged me to try them out and he was right about them - I have been hooked ever since!  You can find them in your local art stores OR if you are like me and have no art store for hundreds of miles you can order them online at Dick Blick!

CMC challenge with the skins!

hello all!

so what did y'all think of the skins?  anyone going to try it out?  as promised i have a little project for ya - my first one.  i am over the top in LOVE with this technique!  i did not think it would be cool at all really - but oh it is!  our challenge for Color Me Creative is to use our fave image and our fave color combo and this fits the bill with my new fave technique to boot!  and the prize up for grabs this time - 1 free class on CMC - winner can choose from either one of Suzanne's copic classes, 1 of my colored pencil classes or one of my mixed media classes!

my CMC challenge DT project is a journal page featuring the skins today:

 

the intense shimmer makes photography a little tough sometimes but LOOK at those flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The background is a wash of Luminarte Primary Elements too - i mixed them with a fluid glazing medium and brushed them across my background.  then i used bubble wrap and the same puddle of Primary Elements and glazing medium to stamp some messy circles here and there.  seriously y'all - the versatility of Primary Elements - can't be beat!

next i cut out my shapes - just freehand, low stress.  i adhered them to the background with gel medium.  you can see in the flower centers that when i made the skins for this piece i sprinkled micro beads on to part of it while wet.  as good as these look in the photos in real life they are phenom!  want to start your own collection of PE powders or add to what you already have then visit leslie at Dreaming In Color and tell her i sent you!

my page started with this adorable image from Sherri Baldy - i just LOVE these - i only came across them recently.  i colored her up using prisma colored pencils and gave her some added pizzazz with an orange spica glitter pen.  i am really into turquoise and terra cotta lately so she covers both my fave image and my fave color combo.

i am also entering my page in the following challenges:

• Besties - anything goes
• everybody art - girl
• card mania - girly
• crafty bloggers network - flowers

color combos are an interesting thing - one of the first rules of the color wheel is that complementary colors look good - one of those is blue and orange:

not terribly awesome...but when you sort of "grow them up" and use shades slightly off from the true blue and orange - like turquoise and terra cotta - they can really play off of each other amazingly well and give your piece alot of power and wow!

thanks so much for stopping in and seeing what i am up to - i really appreciate it!  now be sure to join in on the challenge - YOUR fave image in YOUR fave color combo - and see if you are chosen (at random) to win a free class!

fabulous of course!

happy weekend!

we have three foster kittens with us temporarily - i couldn't resist!  i miss having babies around!  two are maine coons like our own kitties and they are SO scared and timid the poor little things.  they are down in the basement.  then we also brought home fred.  fred is a short hair all black kitten.  he is rowdy so he had to be seperated and put in the nursery AKA my studio.  bubba was dieing of curiosity of course so yesterday morning i had the door open so they could check each other out.  well the phone rang and it was my MIL and FIL had been back in the hospital with complications so of course i dropped everything and talked to her.  when i got off the phone i heard a big "shamie" upstairs (what my cajun grandma called a big commotion.) so i remembered fred and ran up to see what was going on and bubba and fred had made fast friends.  they were playing fred is chasing me and i am terrified game.  when fred gets tired bubba nudges him and asks why he's laying down :P

i have been meaning to get this post up for the current Color Me Creative challenge and with so much going on the days are getting away from me!  Our challenge was to use pastels on our colored image:

 We also used images from our fab sponsor Paper Makeup Stamps - Katie's images are just darling!

she is colored with colored pencils!  want to learn how to color your images with colored pencils?  check out my classes on Color Me Creative!  I have two colored pencil classes plus several mixed media and cricut classes as well!  with more to come in 2013!

ready for a holiday bash???

hi all!!!

it's party time on Color Me Creative!!!

The month long holiday bash is kicking off with a fun blog hop!  you should have arrived here from my sweet friend Anary's blog.  if you are stumbling into the hop on accident be sure to keep hopping until the end and then head to Suzanne's blog (the start) so you don't miss any fab projects! Suzanne has challenged us to use our coloring talents to color metallics!

i made mine an art journal page of course!  the background is my fave super textured technique using tissue paper, colored mists and viva decor inka gold.  and this time i did my lettering by hand instead of on the computer - yay!  i am intimidated by my own handwriting but this one was kinda fun!

i LOVE this jingle bell image from meljen - i have had it for several years and use it every year.  you can learn how to color metallics with your colored pencils and lots of other techniques in my Prisma Pencil classes on Color Me Creative!

so what is this holiday bash all about?  here is what Suzanne has to say:

Starting December 7th the CMC Classroom will have its annual month-long Holiday Bash Celebration! Nothing more fun then having some fun challenges, games and prizes to start the season off right!? I hope you will find time to stop in and look around, join in and just have some fun. The Holiday Bash is really my way of THANKING ALL OF YOU for your continued support, friendship and patronage to the Classroom. So a lot of fun and a way to WIN SOME HUGE prizes from our sponsor!

Details:

*Starts Dec. 7th with a Holiday Blog Hop featuring projects by the CMC DT to kick off the month-long CMC Challenge!! And another way for you to win if you hop along!

*Every week will be a NEW Challenge and Prize...think scavenger hunts, puzzles, games!

*Charity Raffle - I'm giving away a NEW Silhouette Cameo machine to a lucky someone! How can you win it? Everytime you participate in a challenge during the month you get an entry for it. Also for every $3 you donate to the Charity (TBA) you get an entry. Every year I pick a different Charity to help...so far we've raised $3200 over the years..and to me the season is all about GIVING so that's why I always include this.

so go to the Holiday Bash and have some fun!  but first check out what the rest of my DT sisters have done - head to Mel's blog next

let it SNOW!

hello!

did everyone stuff themselves?  brave crazy shopping mobs friday?  i did not go out friday for the first time in i don't know how long.  mostly my heart just wasn't in it.  i don't like how it starts on thursday now.  plus i did not see anything i needed or wanted EVEN AT MICHAELS!  so i stayed home and then ended up being sick all day - even had a low fever!  but today i feel ok - just kind of tired.  had to take hubby to the airport.  work figured since he had some days off for thanksgiving he didn't really need his weekend off too.  so he will be gone for SEVEN days...IN A ROW...EGADS!

after the airport we went to target and pezza did some shopping with her birthday money.  she got some great stuff (and i haven't heard from her since we got home an HOUR AGO!  of course she wanted more than she could afford (don't we ALL!?!?!?) so i made a xmas wish list for her.  we already got her christmas shopping from us and santa done so these are additional items since family always asks what she wants.  my mind always goes totally blank whenever someone asks what she wants.  like i have never met her before and have no idea :P  of course making wish lists like this is always tricky business - some people think it is very offensive but i am not sure why.  i WISH more people had them.  i love giving gifts but i am a horrible gift getter - i NEVER know what would be good.  ever.  i would much rather be able to go look up someone's wish list and buy from that.  i sent the wish list to my family - hubby handles his family.  so i guess we'll see if i make anyone mad :P  i sure hope not!

today's project is for the coloring challenge over on Color Me Creative - here are the deets:

NEW CHALLENGE #57 will run until Dec 7th!

Your challenge this time is all about

**Non-Traditional Holiday Colors**

color ANY image ANY way you like

but there CAN BE NO RED-GREEN HOLIDAY COLORS USED, WE WANT TO SEE NON-TRADITIONAL COLORS USEDin the image somewhere!!

We want to see you use YOUR COPICS, ProMarkers, other alcohol markers or Colored Pencils!!

*******************

CHALLENGE RULES

-Use any image you want BUT MAKE SURE YOU LINK BACK TO THE CMC CHALLENGE in your blog post!!

-ALL PROJECTS MUST BE NEW & NOT BACK-LINKED!!

-Image MUST be colored with Copics, ProMarkers, other alcohol markers or Colored Pencils!

-NO more than 3 projects may be entered

UPLOAD YOUR ENTRIES to the Photo Gallery and TAG them with the word NONTRAD so they can be seen easily!

**IF you post your project in your blog MAKE SURE TO LINK BACK TO THE CMC CHALLENGE **

Entries MUST be tagged and uploaded to the photo gallery by Dec 7th at 8:00 pm EST!

PLEASE ALSO PUT YOUR PROJECT IN THE LINK SYSTEM BELOW THE PRIZE INFO AS WELL SO WE CAN SEE THEM ALL!

********************************

OUR SPONSOR FOR THIS CHALLENGE IS:

Digi My World

and the prize is

A Digi Set of their choice from Digi My World

(Remember winners for prizes are randomly chosen)

and here is my entry - though it is not a card but a journal page

a journal page wishing for SNOW!  this one was super quick and easy to put together.  the background is just strips of green patterned paper (on the bottom), blue patterned paper (on the top), mixed with music sheet strips.  then i "snowed" on the page with white paint and a sponge.

i used two cute little images from our challenge sponsor, Digi My World, and colored them with prisma pencils.  i cut them out and glued them down to the page.

next i used a snowflake stencil with clear heavy gel medium.  BEFORE i lifted the stencil up i quickly dipped a paint brush in Blue Flame and Sky Blue Luminarte Primary Elements pigment powders and gently tapped it from high above to sort of dust it across the gel snowflakes.  then I sprinkled on silver microbeads and finally crystal ultrafine glitter and THEN i lifted the stencil.  but you have to work fast!  i REALLY like this look and want to experiment with it some more - like maybe as a background not through a stencil. or on a chipboard cut out shape...the gel dries clear and starts off pretty wet so that means the pigments sort of melt into it and each other rather than staying distinctly sprinkled PLUS dries clear.  i wonder how it would look using modeling cream which is opaque and not quite so wet....if only i could spend all day every day in my studio!  but NOPE!  it is time to pack up the fall and bring out the christmas around here!

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!!!!!

...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!

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!