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 :)

Flower babies

Here's another card for the craft show stack but for this one I also used the monday lunchtime sketch over on technostamper.



i had the images all stamped, colored and ready to do something with and when I saw the sketch I just knew they would be perfect for it. In fact I had several of these laying on my table and several recent sketches all have long skinny pieces so you will be seeing more of these cute little guys!



The little stamps are from a CTMH set called Flower Child that I just LOVE. The background stamp is fern leaf tooled leather from Starving Artist Stamps and is done using the Opalite Infusion tachnique from the Feb 2008 Technique Junkies newsletter. The small stamps are colored using prisma pencils and mineral spirits. Having been a colored pencils artist for many years before scrapping this is one of my favorite techniques.

well off to clean off my desk - UGH!!!