I made this card last night to send to a friend.  I started with a handmade paper base that has flower petals in the paper.  I stamped the main image by Hero Arts with imperial purple versafine ink.  The sentiment by Stampin Up is stamped with shabby shutters distress ink.  I used the same shabby shutters to stamp the Hero Arts butterfly on a scrap of basic grey and cut it out.  I then added in more shabby shutters and milled lavender around the edges with cut and dry foam.  

In other news: I'm sorry I haven't shared an update about Kyle.  He went back to school last week for partial days and is in school for full days this week.  He's still tired and dizzy occasionally, so I'm driving him both ways. He's working hard to make up for lost time in his classes.  Thanks so much 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.

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.

all things distress

This is a sample for a new class I'm teaching at Stampfully Yours in Escondido in November. I had so much fun getting inky with this tag book. I can't wait to see how the students change it up and make their own versions of this one. I'm planning to write my favorite quotes in here. Eleanor Roosevelt is sure to have top billing. It would make a fun little art journal or mini scrapbook, too. I'd love to hear how you'd use it.

Other news highlights around here this week:
*High School is still going well, even with homework.
*Hubby is flying out to visit with his family this weekend.
*I noticed on our walk today that the leaves and acorns are falling.
*We're up to our eyeballs in seafood. I'm officially a fishing widow or fish wife or something like that.
*Labor Day weekend around here means garage sale mania and a very happy fish wife.
*The stamping girls came over Monday and we stamped ourselves silly. I love stamping days.
*Tomorrow is yoga day, ahhhh

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a beautiful holiday weekend.

Embossed Pearls

This is the first video that I edited myself. Curtis has been doing most of the hard work for me, but I figured it was about time I carry my own weight. Whew, it's more work, but kind of fun. I hope you enjoy this technique I figured out while playing around with some new mulberry paper I scored at a yard sale. Thanks for stopping by.

garden sprite

It's been far too long since I made a gothic arch. I picked up a ton of mulberry paper this week in my treasure hunting and used that for the base. I added some distress ink, perfect pearls, and stamping on the background. The little clear butterfly is cuttlebug embossed, alcohol inked, and stickled. That garden sprite in the middle was a silver pin I picked up in the same treasure hunting trip. I put a little copper mixative on her. I'd like to think somebody like her lives in the garden. Thanks for stopping by.

pink and brown

The gothic arch challenge this week is pink and brown. Lots of distress ink here along with some masks and stamps. That's pink leather as a tie on the tag. I used some new rub on copper color on the flower and brad that I got from my secret sister yesterday. Love this stuff. The weird little ivory circle thing is from my jar of found objects. No clue what it was in it's former life, but I love the way it works with the compass. I've got a thing for compass images lately. Must have something to do with soaring in the right direction. Thanks for stopping by today.