"Genevieve" Supplies Cardstock: Stampin Up; Rubons: Fiskars; Pearl: Kaiser Craft; Stamp: Buzz n Bloom; Ink: Ranger; Markers: Tombow; Vintage Pattern: Vogue; Other: Dictionary definition, vintage button.


Here's a little ATC for you on this fine Sunday.  I used a couple of vintage pattern images and a button from our dear neighbor's estate. Genevieve was my parent's neighbor for more years than I care to count.  I say she was my neighbor, because she was my neighbor while I still lived at home as a teen and young adult.  She was a fine seamstress and grew beautiful flowers and vegetables in her yard and always had a smile on her sweet face.  It feels odd to eat dinner at my parents and not take a plate of food next door to her now.  She was such a kind soul, and shared her kindness with my son, too.  In fact he's the age now that I was when I first met her.  So, this little ATC is sitting in my display board to remind me to smile often and offer a kind word to my neighbors.  


Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Spring, Happy Easter, Happy Chocolate Eggs!  We're heading off to my folks for a yummy ham dinner followed by boston cream pie.  I think the food is my favorite part of holiday traditions. Of course there's all the part around preparing the food that I love, too.  The laughter and sharing of recipes and carrying on. I hope you're having a fine day with your loved ones.  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: glossy cardstock; Staz-On ink; Ink Potion #9; Stampin Up, Inkadinkado, and PSX stamps; feathers; metal epoxy words.

soar

Supplies: Canson Acrylic Paper; Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints; Versamark Ink; Stampin Up Embossing Powder; Sharpie Paint Pen; Stamps by Darkroom Door, Impression Obsession, Stampin Up; Ranger Paint Dabber; Metallic RubOns; Fiskars Corner Punch; Vintage Buttons.


I got messy this weekend with these ATCs and a few projects for the magazine.  These are for a swap with a wing theme I'm hosting.  I made the backgrounds with a palette knife and leftover paint smeared around.  It mixed and messed while I was working on it, then I set it aside for about a month.  This weekend when I wanted to get my ATCs going I cut it apart and got to work.  I love making backgrounds like this when I'm cleaning up.  I always have a little pile of clean up backgrounds.  They usually work better than a background that I try to make for a project.

We had a wonderful time at Disney last week and I'm still working tons and tons.  I took today off to go meet a friend for tea and go to yoga.  It's been 2 weeks since I went and I really need to go get centered and balanced and strong.  Yoga isn't for sissies, it works muscles I never knew I had and the peaceful feeling at the end is better than chocolate.  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

I'm playing in a new to me challenge today.  Over at Think Monday-Think ATC this week it's an orange challenge, the perfect color for this dreary winter weather.  I hope they don't mind that I'm playing on Wednesday. I used a whole bunch of scraps from prior projects still on the table for this one. The focal image is a Cat's Life Press Stamp.

 I hope you're having some sunny days. Thanks for stopping by today.

I painted today!  I love painting.  Do you recognize the base for this ATC?  It's one of the vintage bingo cards from a couple of posts down that I picked up on my treasure hunting.  Ok, so it's not tons of paint, but it really made me happy.  A bit of titan buff with some glazing liquid gave me just the right amount of milky white to still see what's underneath. The little frame around the bingo babe is made with microbeads sprinkled over a line of glossy accents.  Did I mention that I painted today?  It was a good day.  Thanks for stopping by.  

I'm still drawing my way through these fun zentangles.  Here are a couple of ATCs I made last week before this dreaded sickness crept into my body.   The doc is taking good care of me and mom sent me chicken soup last night, so I'm sure to be back to my old self soon.  I just saw that the Zentangle books are available for sale along with Chris Cozen's newest book.  She's an awesome teacher that I've been fortunate enough to take classes from.  So, it you need a new book for inspiration this year, take a look at Design Originals new 2010 books.

Here are a few ATCs I made recently.  This first one uses a Lost Coast Designs background stamp along with some distress ink and an old sewing pattern, lace, pin, and dictionary definition.

This trio is made with more of that wonderful Graphic 45 paper.  Each one has a little metal piece from vintage lingerie.  The sentiments are all stamped.  From left to right they are by Inky Antics, Inkadinkado, and American Art Stamp.

Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes.  It was a beautiful birthday week.  Now I need to gear up for hubby's birthday.  We're both January babies.  Boston Cream Pie is definitely on the menu. Thanks for stopping by today.

Here's my take on Tim's Day 5. This one was a challenge for me because it didn't translate so easily into an ATC. I just went with one larger fragment instead of multiple small ones. The branch is Hero Arts and the image in the fragment is a large Stampin Up background. I'm not thrilled with the way the colors contrast from the fragment to the ATC, but it's probably more realistic to how my actual tree looks. I have a plethora of ornaments in every color and design from a lifetime of collecting them. I really need to get them up on the tree that's set up with lights and no ornaments. Working on getting some holiday cards in the mail today. Thanks for stopping by.

Back to ATCs for day 6. I only had this tiny little car in a collage type stamp by Club Scrap. I love how Tim made his with the old fashioned car, you can see it here. Used some Christmas sheet music for the background and most of the rest is like what he did. I didn't have the sparkly fluff he used on his tree, so I used some old SU fun flock. It's not as pretty, but it works ok. I really liked the tape trick to rough up the vintage paper. I didn't have any masking tape handy so I used scotch tape, but stuck it to my robe first to take some of the sticky off of it. I've been sick, so I'm hanging out in my pjs this week. Stamping is good medicine. Thanks for stopping by.

Day 3 was so much fun to make. I've done the plaid thing before, but adding in some of the new colors made it more intresting. I forgot to put in the black stripe, but there's so much black stamping that I think it looks good without it. I added in a vintage black snap up in the corner. I pick them up in my treasure hunting excursions for a song and they make a great embellishment. Not enough twine here to wrap up the little set of these that I made, so I subbed in a bit of gold. I think it looks festive, so it works for me.

We had a grand time at Knott's and the snow is coming in like crazy now. We made it home just in time last night. It's a snow day, no school. Kyle's happy about it and I'm just going to let him enjoy his morning before I remind him about the snow shovel and the work that comes along with a snow day. For now, I'm off to make us some hot chocolate. Thanks for stopping by today.

This is day 2 of the 12 tags of Christmas. I'm having so much inky fun with these little ATCs. I didn't have any of those cool metal flowers, so I used a Making Memories flower and sprayed it with walnut gold Glimmer Mist. It's my favorite color. This one came together more quickly than the first tag and I love the colors. I definitely wouldn't have used black for the swirls and sentiment if left to my own choice, but I'm trying to follow along as closely as possible. I love the touch of black here and I'm so glad I used it instead of the brown that made more sense to me. I remember my mom telling me in decorating any room you should always include a touch of black because it grounds everything. Of course Mom is right and it works in creating art, too. Thanks Mom.

We're running away to Knott's Merry Farm today. It's become one of our favorite holiday traditions. We ride roller coasters, listen to carolers and other live holiday music, watch Snoopy on Ice, and eat at Mrs. Knotts for her famous fried chicken dinner. I can hardly wait. It was supposed to start snowing here tomorrow, but I see a bit of white on the ground now. That makes it truly a run away escape day. I'm not a fan of the snow even after living here for 18 years.

Here's my take on Tim's first day of the 12 tags of Christmas. I love that he shares these classes each year. I started out making them as ATCs last year, so I decided to roll with it again this year. Working on a smaller canvas of an ATC means I have to scale it all down. I don't use everything he does, but I do try to follow the background technique. This one was so much fun. I really love the rock candy crackle paint. I improvised on my bird which was a snowman on his design. I painted some grungepaper with gesso, then stamped the design over it with black soot distress ink. When I tried to smear on some rock candy stickles it smeared the distress ink. So, just a little tip for you, the embossing is a necessary step. I ended up clear embossing over the whole image and skipped the stickles.

I've been slammed with life stuff, so not much art time. Trying to play catch up today. Hope you're finding some creative time amongst the hustle and bustle of the season.

Mom is home and doing great after her surgery. Thank you so much for all the well wishes and kind comments. I had a little stamping time today now that I'm back home. You can see the cards I made here and my adventures in coloring with Copics here.

These next cards are all made with Darkroom Door stamps. Oh, how I love this company. Such gorgeous images and the owner is an amazing photographer. Stop by Rachel's blog here to see all of her beautiful artwork and stamps that she makes down under. I have a long wish list for her stamps. These butterflies that I worked with stamp so beautifully. I can't stop using them and they arrived on cling mount for easy storage.







I hope you had a lovely beginning to the holiday season yesterday. Thanks for stopping by today.

joyful

Supplies: Cardstock: Stampin Up; Stamp: A Stamp in the Hand, Stampin Up; Ink: Tsukineko; Alcohol Ink: Ranger; Leafing Pen: Krylon; Glitter Glue: Ranger; Other: Button, Ribbon.

Here's a little joyful pear ATC to share with you this morning. I used just a part of a larger stamp for this one. The original stamp is huge and has three pears on it. I masked the stamp and used cactus green stazon ink to ink up just the last pear in the trio. I wasn't sure if the green would cover since it was a lighter color, but it worked beautifully. Getting the sentiment in that little tag was tricky, but I just eyeballed it. I know a stamp positioner is easier, but I'm too lazy to mess with it. I'm not sure what alcohol ink colors are in the background. This is one of my clean up bases. What I mean by that is when I'm doing alcohol ink techniques that I use the craft mat for, I clean it up with an ATC base. I keep some glossy cardstock cut to ATC size and when my craft mat needs to be wiped off, I add a little blending solution and wipe it up with a base. I do the same thing with regular cardstock and distress inks. Sometimes I use a tag as my clean up base with distress inks. Just spritz with a little water and wipe it up. I do the twirl and lift thing. Lay down the cardstock, then twist it around in the ink and lift. Repeat until the craft mat is clean. These are some of my favorite backgrounds and I try to always include this in my classes. It seems like the best stuff comes out of my just roll with it and see what happens play sessions. I hope you'll find some time to play in the ink this week.

On a personal note, Mom's having surgery on the 23rd. It's been a very long two years of illness for her, and this is her chance at getting rid of most or all of it. We're feeling very hopeful that this will give her the quality of life she deserves. Thanks for stopping by today.

ATC Attack

Sharing a few of my ATC's that have been in SNR recently. I'm excited to tell you that I'm now heading up the ATC section of the magazine. That means I'm looking for ATC's from readers to include in upcoming issues. Here's the call for the next three issues with all the particulars. I'm looking for some specific colors: black and white; orange; and heavy metal. I'm also looking for these themes: Things that go bump in the night; Falling Leaves; and A Jolly Old Elf. I'd love to include some blogging friends in the articles. You'll receive two free months of the magazine for each published ATC. You even get to keep the ATC. I just need a great photo of it. Please share this call with your creative friends, too. They can be painted, stamped, digital, or any other medium you like to work in. Thanks for stopping by today.

sideshow stamps

Palm Domino Pin Supplies Stamp: Sideshow Stamps: Ink: Ranger, Tsukineko; Embossing Powder: Stampin’ Up; Other: Domino, pinback

Tropical ATC Supplies Cardstock: Stampin’ Up; Stamp: Sideshow Stamps; Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger; Other: Linen thread, bark paper, pop dots


Gift Card Holder Supplies Bag, Tag: Hot off the Press; Ribbon: American Crafts; Ric Rac: Wrights; Stamp: Sideshow Stamps; Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger


I made these for the a review of Sideshow Stamps for SNR. I have to tell you I love this company. The stamps are beautifully pressed and cut. The designs are unique and so much fun. I love their tropical stamps that I used here and those owls are the only owls living in my house besides a very old realistic psx owl. I have this odd aversion to anything extremely trendy. As soon as everyone wants it, I'm no longer interested. These little owls are different than the "everyone is making them trendy owls", at least to me they are.

I'm going to make a much bigger effort about sharing the items I'm making for the magazine. We have a no show for 30 days policy and I guess after that I just get lazy. It seems that the majority of my creative efforts are going toward the magazine, the videos, and teaching classes. If I don't start sharing these, things will get pretty dull around here. Thanks for stopping by.

spring forward

I'm still having fun with my can of air and alcohol inks. I figured out after the first round, that using the lightest colors works best. For these ATC's I used butterscotch, lettuce, stonewashed, and latte. I can only imagine how fun the new lights and brights alcohol ink colors will be with this technique. The blossoms are made with sharpie poster paint pen. The stamps are by My Sentiments Exactly.

I have fun news to share today. One of my button bracelets is featured on the Fiskateer Blog. I was so happy to receive a few jewelry making tools to work with to create this project. I have to say that the tools they sent are so much nicer than the ones from the toolbox I was making do with. I noticed that Michaels carries some of them if you need new tools.

There are a couple of fun challenges going on this week. Stop by Winterfest 2009 at 2peas stamping board. We have challenges running all week long, and I'm hosting one of them. SNR Card Universe is hosting a Spring Fling for the next two weeks. I'll be teaching a class on the last day, but there's lots of fun between now and then. Thanks for stopping by.

Butterfly ATC

Still working along my journey of making the 12 tags of Christmas in ATC form. This one is based on Day 10. Oh, so many wonderful little discoveries in this one. Have you tried the distress reinker, perfect pearls, and water in a mini mister yet. This was my first real go at this combination. I am in love with the shimmer. It's really amazing. I don't know why I waited so long to try this, but I'm so glad I finally did. I used the mister over the new masks that Tim Holtz has out. I first saw these at a convention and thought they were too big. Fortunately I have a dear friend who thought better and sent me two last week. Thanks Jan. I was able to mask 4 ATC's at once with the large mask. Cool stuff.

The second really wonderful thing about this tutorial was that Tim used snaps in his flowers. I didn't have the ones he makes, but heck I have lots of old sewing stuff around here. These are vintage snaps that I bought in my treasure hunting. Such a fun new twist on a flower center. It's the little things that make me so happy, and using snaps in my papercrafts makes me smile.

The third thing I tried new here is the grungeboard treatment. In the tutorial Tim stamps an image onto plain grungeboard, embosses it and then cuts out the image. I didn't have any plain sheets of grungeboard, but I do have a plain set of nature grungeboard, so I used a butterfly out of the set. Then I embossed a background design over it and painted with perfect pearls and water like he did. Such a fun way to dress up grungeboard.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Day 8 ATC

Here is the ATC I've been trying to share with you for days now. It's based on day 8 of Tim's 12 days tags.

Now if I could just figure out how to resize photos in this new photoshop elements 6, I could show you more. Love the new computer, hate trying to get answers. ugh! It's been snowing here since early Monday morning and we are buried. We gave up on the shoveling today and decided to stay in.

day 6 ATC

I'm still working on doing all of Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas tutorials. This is my ATC take on his Day 6 Tag. I gotta tell you I love painting with alcohol inks. I've been meaning to try this for such a long time. I'm so happy I finally did. He does a great tutorial about it on his blog. It's so easy to do and the results are amazing.

I painted behind my colored images with gesso instead of the paint dauber he used, and it worked just fine. I didn't have all the fun embellie goodies he used, but the basic part of this is the same. I added in a rub-on sentiment and some stickles on the ornaments. The stamped image is by Stampington. Thanks for stopping by.