Still purging!

It is time to get really serious about purging my studio since I will be moving in a couple of months. I am tired of hauling all this stuff every time I move!

Last week, I filled a couple of good sized boxes with punches, 12x12 designer paper, a few wood mounted stamps, & a lot of ribbon and took them to an elementary school that is located in the southern part of the county. it felt good to know that these things went somewhere where they will be used.  I had some of the items for almost five years!  If I hadn't used them by now, it's obvious that I never would.

Next up for purge are stamps and stamp sets.

Woohoo!

Studio Purge Continues!

No pictures today, but rather some rambling thoughts!

I am still working (albeit slowly!) on purging my studio.  The other day, I went through all of my punches and pulled out quite a few that I know I will never use.  Some are brand new and/or having matching stamp sets.  Those stamp sets were pulled off the shelf and added to the pile.  A couple of the punches and matching sets have already been posted on the "Purge to Splurge" group on Facebook.   More will be added later to that group.

I keep putting off going through all of my patterned paper. There is way too much of it!  I know I will feel better getting rid of paper that I bought years ago and have never used.

Last night, I started a Christmas card using the July 2015 paper collection from Heartfelt Creations.  It will be a nice card once it's finished.  I like how Heartfelt Creations makes printed card fronts that you can cut out, embellish & stamp, then glue onto a card base.

Sympathy Card

I made this easel card for a co-worker whose husband passed away recently.

I had a die cut shape that I scanned into my Brother Scan N Cut and enlarged so that it would fit around Grand Calibur Labels One shape.  The flower is a Memory Box die and the diamond shape is a Spellbinders nestabilities die.  The sentiment comes from Papertrey Ink.

My studio purge is still a work in progress. I have sold several items and that feels good!  I sent two packages to a friend in Texas and I threw a lot of stuff in the trash.  There is still a lot more to go through and get rid of.

Slow Day (Yesterday) on the Homefront

Yesterday  (Sunday, 3/15/15) was a nice, slow day. Nothing on my agenda and no plans for the day. 

I decided to pass ongoing to the air show at the local airport so that My Man could spend some “quality guy time” with his (college-age) son. I’m glad I did because they had a great time together.

I purchased a Roku box a week ago so I figured yesterday was a good time to get it set up.  It was easy-peasy!  I had it set up in just a few minutes and started watching Downton Abby.  I have never seen the show, so, of course, I started from the beginning.

I didn’t feel like doing anything in my art studio, but I did feel a bit guilty sitting in front of the TV and not actually doing something. So, I dug out a couple of Spellbinders flower dies, some scraps of paper, and inks. I took those (along with my Big Shot) into the living room and made flowers.  I started out with a blue one but didn’t like it, so I tossed the pieces. I ended up with five light pink flowers (edge-sponged with Stampin Up pink pirouette ink).  I’ll take a picture of the flowers when I get home this afternoon and add it to this post.  (2015-03-17 - ETA picture of the flowers!)

After the air show was over, My Man, his son, and I went out for fajitas.  Yummy dinner! And I got to see the pics and videos they took at the air show.  When I got back home after dinner, of course I had to continue watching Downton Abby!  I am now up to Season 2, Episode 2.

Birthday Card

This card will be going to my Stamping Friend.  It is a loose "CASE" of a card we made this past weekend.  She taught me how to shape flowers quickly, so now I am more inclined to do that.  I've always liked the looks for shaped flowers over flat ones on a card, but I never wanted to go to all that work!  

I used the designer paper that is available for this year's SAtampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration. I sponged around the edges and into the paper so that you can see the embossed design.  The flowers were stamped and punched out, then shaped with a dry embossing tool & bone folder to curl the edges.  The leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart leaf punch; I used the embossing tool to put in the veins & sponged around the edges for dimension.

I used the dotted rectangle die that is available through Fun Stamper's Journey for the second layer.  The stickpin is one that I had made  a couple of years ago.

Purging

I promise, I have been making cards lately!   I made two cards on Sunday that I really like; I just haven't taken pictures of them yet. And I have been working on a Mother's Day card since Monday night.

I have been slowly going through my art studio and pulling stuff that needs to be purged.  I tried to sell a few things on EBay; after several times of listing, I managed to sell three items.  That experience was frustrating and disappointing so it will be a while before I try selling on EBay again.

I found a group on Facebook called Purge to Splurge and thought I'd give it a try. I listed four things last night and already sold two of them!  So, I would say that is a success~!  I am very happy to see some money in my PayPal account AND to send some tools to new homes where they will be used.  I am definitely going to be listing more things on Purge to Splurge in the next few days.

Brother's Birthday Card

This is the card that I sent to my older brother for his birthday.  It was a fairly quick card to make, even though I was designing it as I went.

I stamped the lighthouse image onto watercolor paper with archival black ink, colored it with watercolor pencils, and used my water pen to smooth out the colors. After it was dry (used my handy-dandy heat gun for that!), I used a circle punch to punch out the picture. I didn’t have the next larger sized punch, so I used my Brother Scan n Cut to cut a larger circle.

The sentiment is made up of two stamps. The frame is a Stampin’ Up stamp that coordinates with one of their framelits. The sentiment is from set made by a different company.  I used my Scan n Cut to cut a mat for the sentiment and added brads for accents.

Both the sentiment and the image are popped up.  The background is a piece of designer paper from my scrap bin; I sponged around the edges to distress it a bit. The card is 5” x 7”

Painted Birds

During my lunch break at work yesterday, I doodled a couple of birds on a piece of scrap paper.  They turned out pretty cute so I decided I was going to duplicate them.

This card started out with a piece of dampened water color and some blue distress paint splattered down.  The paint didn’t move enough for my liking, so I added some green gold paint, spread with my paintbrush and spritzed it with more water.  Sometimes I don’t know when to stop, and this was one of those times!  The colors started getting muddy, so I attempted to fix them by laying a wonky circle stencil on the wet paint and removing some paint with a baby wipe.  I didn’t get the effect I was looking for so I decided it was fine the way it was.

After the paint was dry (heat guns are wonderful tools to speed up the process!), I drew the birds with a #2 pencil. Once I was happy with the shapes, I primed them by painting inside the shapes with white paint. Then came the fun of playing with paint colors!  I used red craft paint for the darker areas of the bodies, and mixed the same red paint with flesh colored craft paint for the lighter areas. I used burnt umber acrylic paint mixed with some of the red craft paint for wings. 

The sentiment is a thinlit die from Stampin’ Up.  I cut that out of white cardstock & glued it down. I then traced around the sentiment and the birds with a black stabilo pencil. I used a clear glitter pen as the finishing touch on the sentiment.

The card size is A2  (5-1/2" x 4-1/4").  The size of the painted image is 4" x 5-1/4" and it is layered onto a piece of  black cardstock measuring 4-1/8" x 5-3/8"

Embrace Your Art, Prompt 19

Well, I missed all of the Embrace Your Art prompts between my last prompts posts and this one!

Prompt 19 is Bubbles.  I painted this page in my small art journal.

Embrace Your Art, Prompt 20

This mixed media card was a lot of fun to make! Prompt 20 is Diamonds and Pearls.

I cut a piece of watercolor paper 4-3/4” x 6-3/4” for the card front.   I spritzed the paper with water, then used a sponge dauber to add the different blue and green inks.  The blue spray blob in the top is from Limor Webber’s 2014 “steampunk” collection at Lindy’s Stamp Gang.

I used a foam stamp that has three diamonds on it with two colors of green inks. I stamped the lighter color first, then over-stamped with the darker color.   After that, I stamped the flower from Totally Tracy’s set, “Let It Go,” in Archival Black ink. I painted the petals and leaves with different colors of watered down inks. After the page was dry, I lightly smeared a charcoal pencil around the diamonds and used Liquid Pearls to create the textured flower center.

The card front was layered onto navy blue cardstock (4-7/8’ x 6-7/8”) and then glued to a 5 x 7 card base.

(Yes, I know!  I am a couple days behind on the prompts!  I haven’t even started Prompt 21, Ghost Writing.  )