Watercolor Masculine Card

The image for this card was supposed to be used on my brother's birthday card.  But when I watercolored it, I used a lot of water trying to smooth out the pencil lines. It took a long time to dry and I didn't want to wait.  So I created something different for my brother.  I'll post that card after his birthday next week; don't want to take a chance on him seeing it on my blog beforehand.  :-)

Anyway, the watercolored image was still sitting on my desk a few days later, all nice and dry!.  So I decided to use it to make a really quick card for my stash.  I'll add a sentiment when I send this card out.

I apologize, but I do not know the manufacturer or either the image stamp or the background cross-hatched stamp.  The cardstock is Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Pear Pizzazz.  I used Stampin' Up!'s Old Olive ink for the background stamp.   The image was stamped in Archival ink on watercolor paper.

Rowdy to the Rescue!

Something that is “near and dear” to my heart is Senior Dogs, especially those who are in shelters for one reason or another.  Senior dogs do not have a good chance of being fostered or adopted and we all what that means.  L

Rowdy to the Rescue is a rescue group whose mission is to rescue and rehabilitate all senior dogs, not just senior pit bulls.  You can read a little about their history as well as their Mission Statement in this article.

Since the article was written, Chris Hughes and his lovely wife, Mariesa, started the Mr. Mo Project after one of their pack, Moses, went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2014.  He was such a sweet fellow and I enjoyed following his adventures on Facebook.  I never had the pleasure of meeting Moses or scratching his ears, but I fell in love with him over the internet and cried like a baby when he left us behind.  You, too, can follow the Mr. Mo Project as well as all the rest of the pack in the Dog House on Gremlin’s page on Facebook

The Mr. Mo Project covers all costs for senior dogs who are in their foster program. Not just the transportation costs to get the dogs from the shelters around the country to their foster homes, but also all veterinarian costs. Most times, the senior dogs need extensive medical care.   Please consider donating to Rowdy to the Rescue which is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit organization.  The article talks about levels of donations, but I’m sure Chris and Mariesa would welcome a donation in ANY amount.  If you would like to foster a Senior Dog, please email Chris Hughes at rowdy2therescue@gmail.com.

Embrace Your Art Daily

I have joined a (Facebook) challenge called Embrace Your Art Daily. This challenge  started on January 1st and runs for the entire year. Tiare Smith selects the prompts for the week on Mondays.

The first eleven prompts have been selected:

1. Pastels, Paints, Ink

I was staying at a friend's house over the Christmas and New Year's holidays and did not have a lot of art supplies with me.

I drew the tree trunk and flowers, then used watercolor pencils to color the image. That fulfilled the "pastels" and "ink" portion of the challenge. I used a sharpie pen to outline everything and to write the quote; that fulfilled the "ink" portion of the challenge.



2. Bloom

I found a tutorial on YouTube on drawing poppies.  They are easy!

Again, the flowers were colored with watercolor pencils and outlined with the sharpie pen.


3. Hand

I traced my hand with a #2 pencil, then colored the image and background with (you guessed it!) watercolor pencils.

I did have a couple of stamps with me; I used one of them to stamp the flower images. If I remember correctly, this is a Hero Arts image.

After everything was colored, I outlined my hand and the flowers with a sharpie pen.




4. Intuition
I did not create any art for that challenge. I spent the late morning packing up everything to come back home. My friend plays guitar and is part of a local band  (J.Q. and the Master Blasters). They had a gig on Sunday afternoon, so I went with him to that before driving home yesterday evening.

5. Numbers

This card fulfills the challenge for numbers AND it is also my Teapot Tuesday card for this week.  I do not have the link for the Teapot Tuesday challenge yet, but we were supposed to either make an ATC or a mixed media card.

I did both!  The section inside the black and pink butterfly tape is an ATC  (2-1/2" x 3-1/2") I matted the ATC and stamped the background of the card. The ATC is popped up to add dimension.

Go join the challenge group on Facebook!  Watch the videos to get the rest of this week's prompts.

I have been having a good time. I hope to be able to create something every day in 2015.  

October-November Challenge Entry

This is my entry into Tracy Weinzapfel's October / November Challenge.  The deadline to enter is Sunday, Nov 30th.  The challenge was to CASE any of Tracy's paintings from a Mixed Media Monday video.   I chose to CASE this one from October 15, 2014.

I used a baby wipe to slap down three different colors of acrylic paint for the background.  Then I drew / painted the flower and leaves with a primer coat of white gesso. After the gesso dried, I mixed a couple shades of yellows in a puddle on my paint palette and bright shades of orange and red in another puddle.  The center was painted first with the red/orange, and then the petals were painted with a bottom layer of yellows. I added streaks of the red orange for shading.  The leaves were painted with a mixture of green acrylic paints.  The lighter color in the petals was done with a white Sharpie paint pen.  I laid down a lot of the paint, then used the tip of the pen to move it around. As it dried, it picked up the color from the paint underneath.  


This was done in a little over an hour, including drying time. I used my heat gun to dry the paint. 

No card for today ...

This is just a quick update on my "studio purging" journey.

I have come to a standstill on breaking up my Stampin' Up! sets. As I scan the sets on my DVD shelf, I just cannot make myself break up any more of them right now.  So, I am not going to try to force myself; I'll wait until it feels "OK" to break them up.

Once that urge hits again, I'm ready.  I recently bought more of the full sized stamp cases (for wood mounted sets) that Stampin Up sells.  I'm almost at the point where I need to sub-divide certain classifications, such as flowers or birds. It will be easier to find the stamp that I want to use if I sub-divide  flowers into types of flowers (i.e. roses or 

Last night, I grabbed the plastic tote where I keep my paper scraps. Oh boy, did I ever get aggressive with throwing away paper scraps! I kept some of the larger pieces and a few pieces that I really loved or knew that there would be no more of that particular pattern.  The rest was put in a trash bag and will be taken to the dumpster in the next day or so.

If anyone looked in my studio, they would  not see any evidence that I am purging.  I am taking Baby Steps on this journey so each completed bit of the purge is not evident. But every one of those Baby Steps has been so freeing!  It may be a long time before I see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, but I plan on completing this journey no matter how long it takes.

I keep telling myself that I need to "lighten my load."  It is wasteful to have so much *stuff* in my studio that doesn't get used.  And it's even *more* wasteful to have stuff that is forgotten about and ends up at the bottom of a drawer or box.

My Granddaughter's Birthday Card

This card is for my granddaughter’s upcoming birthday.  She doesn’t read my blog, so it is safe to post her card even though her birthday is not for a couple of weeks yet. She is going to be 11. Where on earth did the time go?  It seems like just yesterday that she was born!

“Tween” cards are difficult for me, much like children’s or masculine cards.     Pinterest to the rescue!   I CASE’d    this card from Splitcoaststampers.com   and had to dig into the pile of stamp sets that I am going to either donate or sell to do so.

I used the same stamp set and layout, but everything else is different.  I left off the two smaller flowers, used different papers for the big flowers, and  different sentiment. I used mini pearls in the centers of the flowers instead of brads and added a layer under the card front.  Of course, the card needed a bit of bling, so I went over the sentiment with my clear glitter pen.

Recipe
Stamp Set: Stampin’ Up! Friendship Blooms (2008 Sale-A-Bration), unknown sentiment
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up! Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, Papertrey Ink white, unknown DSP’s (from my scrap bin)
Ink: Archival Black
Accessories: Mini pearls, Sakura clear gelly roll pen

MMTPT329 Monkeyshine!

Shenanigans!

This card is for yesterday’s Teapot Tuesday challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com. It is going out to Pam in Westminster, CO.  Pam recently had surgery and is “on the mend.”

Funny or cute cards are not my forte, so I had to think a bit on it. I looked on the internet but didn't find anything that gave me inspiration, so I was on my own for this tea party!   After looking through my stamps for a while, I remembered that I have some cute animal stamps. I figured I could do something with one of them.  And then I found the Changito Monkey set and the light bulb over my head turned on!

I had a scrap of watercolor paper on my desk that needed a bit of a trim to make it the perfect size.  I stamped the tree limb image, added extra leaves, then stamped the monkey.  Then I colored the image with my colored pencils.  After it was all colored, I realized that I should have stamped the image of bananas that is in the set in the monkey’s hand.  I guess I could have paper-pieced  the bananas, but I didn't think about doing that until just now as I’m writing this post.  Oy!

I used on old Stampin’ Up! Set called Bitty Backgrounds to stamp on the layer of Lost Lagoon cardstock. I tried it first with just Versamark ink, but it didn't show up as nicely as I’d hoped. So I flipped the cardstock over and stamped again with lost Lagoon ink.  Ahhh, much better!

I layered both pieces onto black cardstock before assembling the card.  There is no bling or embellishments on the card at all.

Recipe:
Stamps: Stampin’ Up! Bitty Backgrounds, Changito Monkey
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Lost Lagoon, Papertrey Ink white, watercolor paper
Ink: Archival Black, Stampin’ Up Lost Lagoon
Accessories: Colored Pencils

Sparkly Snowflakes!

This was a fun, quick, and simple card to make.  I’m running short on time, so I think this is the “winner” and will be this year’s Christmas card for my family.

The snowflake designer paper was cut to 4”x5-1/4” and layered onto silver foil paper.  The silver foil looks black in the picture, though.  The white center piece was cut to 4” wide, punched with the embossing punch, stamped with the sentiment, and then trimmed it to about 2-1/2” wide. I glued a thin strip of silver foil paper to the top of the panel to make it pop even more.

After the card was assembled, I went over the sentiment with a clear glitter pen. This card is very sparkly in real life!

Today’s card fits the requirements for both of the Monday challenges at Splitcoastampers.com:

The Technique Challenge (TLC508) was to make a card is 15 minutes or less. 

The CAS Challenge (CAS299) was to use snowflakes.

Recipe:
Stamps: Tim Holtz Handwritten Holidays
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink white, Recollections designer papers
Ink: Archival black
Accessories: Martha Stewart snowflake embossing punch, Sakura clear gelly roll glitter pen

Sympathy Card

Once again, I needed a card for a co-worker who recently lost his father.  Goodness, but sympathy cards are so hard! More so when you need one right away.  I really need to make an effort to have sympathy cards on hand.

This card is 5 x 7.   The sizes of the panels are as follows:

Back panel mat – 2-1/2” x 6-1/4”
Back image – 2-1/4” x 6”

Main image mat – 3-3/4” x 5-1/4”
Main image -  3-1/2” x 5”

The back image was stamped with Stampin’ Up’s Hardwood background stamp.  The main image was also stamped with the Hardwood background stamp, then over-stamped with Stampin’ Up’s En Francais background stamp in a darker ink.   I then stamped the cattail image on the main panel piece, then glued the panels together, assembled the card and stamped the sentiment.

After the card was all glued together, I realized that the cattail image was floating in mid-air on the panel. So, I adhered a very narrow width of the rust cardstock along the bottom of the image to ground it.

Recipe
Stamps: Stampin’ Up Hardwood and En Francais, unknown sentiment, unknown cattail image
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Really Rust (retired), Close to Cocoa (retired), Papertrey Ink cream
Ink: Archival black, Momento light cocoa, rich cocoa

I started doing it

Well, I never thought I would be able to break up my (Stampin Up!) stamp sets and store similar images together.  But it has gotten to the point where I need to do a purge my studio, soooooooo I started out slowly.

I grabbed some older sets that I haven't used in quite a while and dove right in.  Flower images moved to the cases with other brands of flower images, leaves to the leaves case,  butterflies moved to the butterfly case, etc.  It wasn't so bad after all; in fact, it felt pretty good.

And!  I took four sets of silhouette images and combined them into one case. The sentiments with those sets were rather silly, so I  (gasp!) threw them in the trash!

I have a small stack of some sets that I know I will never use, so those will either be sold very inexpensively or donated to a thrift shop.

Progress in tiny steps.