a fun change of pace today with video!

hi all!

first day of Spring Break down...4 more to go until the weekend :P  today we went to Great Country Farms.  It is a cool place - a full on working farm that is also set up as a Upick farm AND huge play/activity area.  there's all sorts of things like a giant jumping pillow, play sets, huge slides plus farm animals galore and lots of interesting farm facts along the way.  they also have a lot of fun things set up throughout the spring-fall seasons for holidays and festivals. ending with my son, trev's favorite - pumpkin chunkin'!

we had a crazy busy weekend that included picking up our new momma foster kitty!  she had her babies friday night and we picked her up saturday morning.  she is a beautiful lovey dovey teeny brown tabby and she had 2 grey babies and 2 black & white ones.  we decided to name her Candy.  the 2 grey boys are Twizzler and Skittle and the 2 B&W girls are Peppermint & Taffy.  Taffy is the runt and VERY laid back and cute - not very runty just a bit behind.  Twizzler is the biggest and boy has he got a mouth on him!  Candy is settling in to her space in my studio nicely and has the whole basement to herself.  i really thought bubba might be happy to see her and the babies since he is constantly trying to play with my big cats but nope.  he hates her.  i am hoping he will warm up to her eventually because i think he would have lots of fun playing with the kittens.  pics are at the end of this post!

we also de-winterized our camper so we can be ready for our first trip of the season in 2 weeks.  we are headed to PA to ride trains with pezza - she is very excited!

ok on to my fun projects - i took a quick detour from the papercrafting and mixed media to do some jewelry!

 i was first inspired by the necklaces i saw one day at Kohls.

i made the pendants using UTEE and Luminarte Primary Elements in a bezel and adding some Gala Glitz too (vintage glass shards and microbeads).

I added a variety of other beads and charms along the chain.

fun and surprisingly easy!  here is a second one in black and silver

i love it paired with the green and black

there is a video below that has this charm in it along with other things you can do with UTEE - SCACD carries the bezels, UTEE and Primary Elements i used.

it turns out that making the little eyes on the top and some bottoms of the danglies is actually super easy!  in fact i just might make some more stuff!

one tip - go pick out your beads, chain and additional charms FIRST and then decide on the colors for your Bezel.  It is really tough to do the bezel first and THEN look for matching beads :P

here are the kitties...

and now the video...

have fun!

garden of shimmer

hi all!

no chit chat today - just bizness!  i am joining the SCACD girls for the latest release - Susana Loves Stamps presents the Eye of Dreams Collection!  You should have arrived here from Lou Mac's blog. 

I got to work with this little cutie!

Her name is Garden Eyes.  I colored her with my polychromos pencils

her flower garden is done with Luminarte Primary Elements artist pigment powders and one of the newest Crafter's Workshop stencils by Julie Fei-Fen Balzer - you can get them at SCACD!

I began by mixing up some shimmering mist using Primary Elements, gum arabic and water in a mister.  I misted the paper with sunburst and summer breeze.  Next I mixed Blushing Rose Primary Elements with Dreamweaver Translucent embossing paste and scraped it over the stencil and lifted.  Gorgeous shimmering pink embossing paste flowers!

my simmering glass tile is actually a piece of chipboard from a maya road collection - i inked it, covered it in UTEE and added primary elements on top along with more UTEE - look for a video on this technique and more soon!

Be sure to mention that our International Friends can purchase these stamps at Quixotic Paperie:

now head on over to my long time buddy Sandie's blog for the next stop on the hop.

luminous garden

hi all!

i am hard at work on lots of things right now but nothing to post as of yet.  however, i do have my second guest post up on the Luminarte blog - i hope you will check it out! here is a peek at it for ya!  we will be doing a giveaway over there on friday so be sure you don't miss out on that!

guest artist announcement

hi all!

guess what!  i was asked to be a guest designer for a month on the Luminarte blog!  and y'all know how much i love me some luminarte shimmering goodness!  so i hope you will all head over there and check it out and leave me some love!

also don't forget about the two workshops i will be teaching in baltimore May 19th!  there is still time to sign up on the workshop page!

video for you - twinks!

hi all!

yet another amazing day in NoVA!  did more yard work - the front gardens are nearly done and it is looking fantastic!  hubby came out and was cutting some wood for a garage project and he cut some of the things i have been wanting so i was THRILLED about that!  can't wait to play with those.  we have a bit more detail cutting to do though.

some of you may have seen a card i posted awhile back and i said i would do a video tutorial for you...well i finally got it done!

 isn't she shimmery?!  well i can show you how - it's so easy!

 you can use your twinkling H2Os and colored pencils together!

 check it out and let me know what you think!

mix it up with shimmer!

hi all!

good GRIEF the days are just flying by! you know how they say (yea "they") that time goes faster the older you get? at this rate i will completely MISS the second half of it :P the weather has been SO gorgeous here i have spent a good part of my time outside lately.  JUST about killed myself getting my gardens in order.  but oh they are looking good.  still more to be done though.  then poor pezza got really sick.  monday morning she got up, laid on the couch and pretty much stayed there with out hardly talking.  as we got closer to lunch i was REALLY suspicious so i took her temp - yep 101!  went through a stomach bug apparently but is all good today!

while she was sick we watched 2 kitten episodes of too cute on animal planet and i just couldn't stand it.  i have wanted another preggie momma cat but hubby was not too excited about the idea.  well today i asked again and he said YES!  so i am going to let the cat coordinator know as cat season is fast approaching!

yesterday we kicked off the next challenge in the mix it up altered art group on color me creative - use SHIMMER!  any kind will do!  of course i have pulled out my luminarte twinkling h2os:

i drew the branches and birds after seeing a tutorial linked on pinterest.  i thought they were so cute and simple so i gave it a shot. 

they were especially perfect to do an art journal page with one of my life mottos.  some people call it flying by the seat of my pants.

i call it faith - huge copious amounts of faith in my higher power.  i have not had an easy walk to get to where i am now - in fact i have defied some pretty daunting odds :)

after i drew the picture i painted it with luminarte twinkling H2Os.  truly amazing shimmering watercolors in lots of colors and so easy to use!

i used some claudine hellmuth stamps and acrylic paint to stamp some leaves and then added some cut out leaves done on my cricut.  i finished it off with little prima flowers (remember these simple ones from back in "the old days?") and some white gel pen.  i will be taking Dion Dior's Mastering Twinks class in April and am very excited - i encourage y'all to check it out!  it's a great price AND Dion is incredibly talented!

mixed media flower girl

hi all!

i wanted to share something my fabulous friend Somphane said that has been on my mind for the last week.  a bunch of us moms had gotten the kids together to play and we were hanging out chatting and of course the subject of weight gain came up.  and somphane said - why worry about it.  we aren't little girls we are women and we have women's bodies now which come with curves.  she said we shouldn't be worried about the fact that we aren't as slim as we were when we were younger we should be proud of our curviness and proud of being a woman.  that has made such a profound effect on my self image!  she is brilliant!  my entire perspective has changed because she is right!  because in reality no amount of dieting and exercise is going to get me back down to the weight i was in my early twenties! i can be healthy yes - but i will never be the stick figure i was  years ago!

 i decided to take a break from my "work" stuff and just play in my studio the past couple days.  i am really venturing back to my roots and doing more mixed media stuff as opposed to the color an image, add layers, add flowers kind of stuff.  {though i AM missing my die cutting so i need to get back to my black cat next!}

i am taking several online classes right now - christie tomlinson, suzi blu, dion dior - and learning tons!  i am especially loving my suzi blu classes and today's project is a direct result of what i have been learning.

i am entering it in the following challenges:

• creative card crew - vintage
• papertake weekly - for the girls
• 4 crafty chicks - chicks rule

and in the true spirit of going green i did this piece on one of the large wood blocks from a SU stamp - i never mount them on wood.  the best part - i drew this little girl myself!  yep i sure did!  better yet - i am sharing her with all of you - you can get her as a free digi image at the end of this post!

i began by adhering torn strips of a book page to the wooden base with gel medium.i painted the bottom green and the top blue using Luminarte Silks (fern & Sky Blue) - you can get them at SCACD.  the silks are an acrylic glaze meaning there are translucent so the book page strips shows through.  once dry i wanted to tone things down a bit so i swiped on some luminarte Golden Opal primary elements powder mixed with gel medium.  LOVE this stuff - i can mix it into so many things depending on what i am doing.  I layered on some circles & the scallop border using claudine hellmuth's acrylic paints and foam stamps - which i ADORE!  also stamped a wildflower sillhouette from a CTMH stamp set using brown staz on ink.

as i said, i drew the little girl myself then inked her and scanned her - i didn't want to color right on my original in case i messed it up or wanted to use it again.  then i printed her out and colored her with colored pencils (polychromos).  last, i added the embellishments - some glittered skittles, the vintage crocheted border and some teeny prima flowers from 100 years ago :P  i needed something more than just the flowers at her feet so i mixed Luminarte Moss Green primary elements and gel medium to get a thick paste.  i just dabbed it around her feet in a "pile" and then stuck the flowers in it and dabbed some more in the flower centers.

when I drew her i knew i would be putting a flower in her hands so i did not originally draw anything in her hands but i put a little flower in them for y'all!

feel free to download her and use her but do not sell her!  let me know if you use her so i can check out what you did!