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 and a freebie!

ahhhh the weekend!

anyone with big plans for the weekend???  us not so much.  our big plans involve lots of yard work.  mainly weeding.  we have these hideous sticker weeds that freakin TAKE OVER my gardens.  and they grow FAST.  i hate them. HATE HATE HATE.  so i will be pulling those nasty suckers out.  the boxwoods (oh dreadful boxwoods) in the front are in need of a haircut too.  and then there is my poor pathetic blueberry garden which i cannot keep clear.  i am throwing in the towel on that corner of the yard and pulling the blueberries out and letting the lawn take back over.  more trimming in the butterfly garden and then i can turn my attention to the vegie garden.  i am going to do cold weather vegies this year.  first i need to add some goodies to the soil and then we will be planting spinach, carrots, beets and sugar snap peas from seeds - which i never have success with yet keep trying to do.  i also have some little plantlets - mustard and collard greens, brocoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, two kinds of cabbage and some lettuces.  yummy!  our tomatoes have been so good and the herbs are doing amazing.  we also got great jalapeno peppers and purple onions.  the cucumbers not so much.....and i just put a bed of red potatoes and sweet potatoes in that i hope does well.  next thing you know i will be building a barn.  KIDDING!!!

in other news i was back at the doc for test results.  ulcer, gastrtis and...wait for it...at risk for diabetes.  i don't have it yet but am surely heading in that direction if i don't make some changes.  i am NOT pleased y'all!  my three fave food groups are sugar, butter and empty carbohydrates :P  fave meal of the day? dessert.  now i am reading up on what changes i need to make etc.  BLECH!  cut the sugar in my coffee in half this morning.  BLECH!  the ulcers and gastritis - he is pretty sure are the result of all of the NSAID pain relievers the ENT doc advised me to take for my headaches.  wow thanks alot.  so we are back to perhaps some doc will eventually think it would be a good idea to investigate the headache source and maybe address that....ugh!  needless to say i am feeling a bit cranky and sorry for myself.  the testing DID rule out a host of other things though so i am glad about that.

AND this brings me to my project for today - art journal page of course! this is for the new Color Me Creative Challenge - color some part of your image black.  I am also entering this in the Art Journal Cafe challenge - monochromatic.  soooooo....

heh heh, i like it.  the background is one i do in my mixed media class on color me creative using Luminarte Primary Elements powders.

you can see the shimery yumminess better at this angle.  The practically glowing pink flower is Luminarte Silks - also full of yummy shimmer!  i used extra heavy modeling gel and China Black Primary elements through a Creative Imaginations stencil and while it was still wet i sprinkled it with more Primary Elements powders.

once again i drew the girl myself and you can download her below if you'd lie.  she is colored with Prisma pencils.  you can see more of the shimmer in this pic too.

and now for a little game of who can spot the kitten:

our little foster babies have still not been adopted.  lately i have been letting them come upstairs to get them a bit more socialized and see if taffy - the tiny sickest one - would get less skittish and fearful.  whenever i am cleaning i gather the immense amount of cat toys strewn about the house and throw them on the bottom of the cat tree.  it is taffy's favorite spot to sleep.  i sure hope good luck comes our way tomorrow at the adoption event and they can find the perfect people :)

art journal page and a freebie

hello awesome readers!

here's hoping for a more productive day for me!  hollyn had a good time meeting her principal last night - she is very nice.  of course pezza also made the rounds of all the tables herself meeting and getting to know everyone like she was running for office as usual.  even the asst. principal commented it was like she was running for office and i told him that is what hubby and i have been saying about her for years.  she is certainly not an introvert :P

i have another class project for you today - remember you can sign up for class over on Color Me Creative!

 i LOVE the quote and it is something i need to try harder to remember on a daily basis.  as for the piece itself it was alot of fun to make and has SO many yummy things included in it!

you may recognize the tulips from a previous post - i scanned it into my computer and turned it into a digi which y'all are free to download if you would like!

if you want to know the how's behind the piece we talk ALL about it in class!  i will leave y'all with a pezza bit.  last night i sent her to her room for being ugly to me.  as she was stomping off she asked how long she had to stay in there.  i said until she decided to stop being ugly to me to which she replied that will happen when you start doing everything my way.  um yea that ain't happenin' missy.  so she disappears for awhile, collects herself and reappears on the scene in disguise:

she said her name was ella.  love this kid - so glad she isn't boring!

cmc challenge and free digi!

happy saturday!

anyone olymipic-ed out yet?  i only watch the gymnastics so i don't get olympic overload but i sure do wish it was an option to watch sometime other than the middle of the night!  i have a couple nights on the dvr i have yet to watch.  i LOVE it and wanted to be a gymnast so badly when i was young!  how freakin' amazing was gabby?  and so well spoken i thought - it must take alot to be so focused as a teenager.

yesterday hubby was off because he had to work all night last night so we loaded up and headed to the mall for a little school clothes shopping.  i love gymboree but will only shop with a sale and coupon because they are so expensive.  pezza is all set and stylin' now!  on monday i will be at her school meeting with teachers and the principle about her IEP.  she was trying to tell me she is worried about school because she is a bit shy...BAH!  not a day in her life EVER!  i sure hope her teacher is ready for her!

as i mentioned i have joined the Color Me Creative DT for awhile and there is a new challenge up!  the challenge is to create a background for your image...

i am not sure this is what suzanne had in mind but of course my mind went immediately to mixed media!

i drew this little lady myself and colored her with Lyra colored pencils - you can download her and use her yourself if you want to at the end of this post.

the background has layers of lots of different goodies and this project will be included in my mixed media special projects:cards class.  in the meantime you can sign up for the mixed media basics class on cmc!  the orange flower was made with viva decor crystal gel and a silicone mold - both are available at SCACD.

and here she is - let me know if you have trouble downloading her!