Summer on the Shore

Here is the sample for this week on One Powerful Hour. The theme is Summer.

I had a lot of fun making this piece I think because it reminds me of summers on the beach with my family but also because it is so glittery and shimmery which to me of course makes it even more fun.

The image is from Altered Pages. The Sun stamp was given to me by my sister and that is all I know about it. I painted the Sun with Twinkling H2O's and added glitter to a few of the rays and rhinestones to the tips.

On the Left I sewed two strings of gold beads with some red sea shells from Paula's Kit club. The fish are also from Paula's Kit club...they were gold but I stained them blue with Alcohol Ink.

Hope you enjoy!

The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith

I was watching TV the other day and saw a commercial for "The Vampire Diaries" a new series coming to the CW this Fall. I vaguely recalled the name and realized that it was a book I had on my To Be Read pile. So I read it.

Well, I was not into the book at all. However my complaints with the book will not bother me in a Television show.

The female character was a popular snob and the main male character seemed a bit week to me (I don't think this will be the case in the TV show). The romance also did not seem very believable, I think mainly because of Elena's personality. She goes after him as if he is a possession that she must have, not out of love and then all of a sudden she is head over heals in love with him.

As I already said the problems I found with the book will not bother me in a television show. When I sit down to watch TV (seldom) I like to be totally brain fried. I think in my reading I like my characters to have more substance and for the plot to be more believable.

When I started this book I was all set to go out and purchase the next (and last) in the series but now I think I will just wait for it. I am number 82 in line on Paper Back Swap. I do not see the Television show going beyond the first book in its first Season.

What's Your Style???

Well, it has been a long time but I finally got a chance to finish up/work on a Circle of Friends Journal. The rotation is actually done for the year but since I moved the last to members said that regardless of the fact that they would get their journals back late they still wanted me to work on them.

So here is the first of the last 2 remaining journals.

The theme for this journal was "What's your Style?" Have you ever tried to answer that question? It is not so easy. At least not in my case. I discovered while working on this journal that I have two distinctly different styles. A kind of Victorian Sheik look and then a Retro Glamor. Of course I use glitter and shimmer in both though.

So for the first page, the description of my style page. I decided I wanted to have a ying and yang but stamping on black paper is impossible so I altered the symbol drastically, but isn't that what creative licence is for...

I kept this page really simple more as a time saver than anything else. There is very little stamping, just the words and I selected a background paper that I thought was pretty and not so busy that you wouldn't be able to read the words. I added glitter too the two cut outs of the symbol and used it to separate the sides. The last touch was adding some diamond glaze to my name and the word "style."

Here is a quick preview of the two very different styles that I did for this journal. They don't go side by side at all but then again I think it is fun to see them like this.

Okay so this one is a redo of a piece I did about 2 years ago that I have never been able to let go. I even hand wrapped it and hand carried it with me during the move because I didn't want it to break.

I like to work with non traditional items to stamp on, hence the pop sickle sticks. Once they were glued onto the paper I stained the wood with some various water shades of alcohol ink. Then painted over it with a cream and sanded that down to let the under layer show through. One more step before I start adding thing, I stamped sea shells randomly all over and then once again did a little sanding.

After all that I finally added the image of the mermaid (Alpha Stamps) which I covered with diamond glaze and then surrounded with some German Scrap. The final step was the fishing wire strung with sea shells and beads. Lastly I glued down a bunch of mini river rocks.

The fish ephemeral was originally gold and it was a little too harsh in my opinion so I used the same alcohol inks as I did on the sticks to add a color to it.

And here is the Retro Glam page. A much simpler and faster piece to make but in my opinion not nearly as eye catching or tantalizing.

The background was created by stippling on various shades of distress ink and then spritzing it with water to get them to blend and smooth out. Next I brushed on the Silver Crackle paint.

The butterflies are chipboard that I covered with weathered wood crackle paint. The orange jello mold extraordinaire is cut out from a sheet of specialty paper send in a Paula's Kit Club, I had been saving it and this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

All the stamping is direct to paper and then I added some rhinestones to the tips of the spray thingies.

It is hard to tell but there really is a lot of texture to this piece.

And last but not least Since I am the last person to work on her journal I thought a quick and simple "The End" was appropriate.

you can't tell but the flower is covered in diamond glaze.

I had a blast working on this journal I just wish I could work faster and still accomplish the looks I love to share with people.

Social Butterfly

I got an e-mail from a frequent participant of One Powerful Hour asking me if I would share the samples on my personal blog so that she could leave a comment. So, here it is...

This week over at One Powerful Hour the challenge is "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" not only a fabulous Cindy Lauper song but also a theme to one of my all time favorite 80's flicks.

I got the idea for this tag/bookmark after viewing a Tim Holtz demonstration on crackle paints and resist stamping. I had to try it out on my own and this was the result which I am very pleased with. The butterflies are chipboard that I painted with the Silver Crackle paint, I need more practice with the metallic crackle paints.

The background is a few shades of the Tim Holtz distressing ink all blended together. The main stamp is from one of Paula's Kit Club's isn't she fabulous!

Well, I had a blast making this and I sent it off to my sister with her birthday gift b/c she really likes my cheeky Reto pieces. I hope you do too.

Keepin it Simple

Here is the latest instalments of cards for Repeat Impressions. I received the assignment right after moving so I was a bit concerned with having enough time to make the pieces so I decided to keep them very simple. Something that is hard for me but I always love the results.

This top card I think is my favorite. The peace emblems are painted using Twinkling H2O's so they shimmer, of course. Around the edge I used a Red and Yellow DMC floss.

Both of the stamps I used on this card are from Wendy's newest collection Hip Chick

This card was not one that I originally planned but after working with the Peace, Love stamp on the above card I just had to make this card.

I wanted a 60's feel about the card so I used three different ink and blended them together in what I am calling a modern tie die.

As a finishing touch I added glitter to one heart, one swirl and one piece sign.

I made a matching/coordinating envelope to go with this card that I am not going to show here so make sure to check out Repeat Impressions to see it.

This card the idea was the easiest for me to come up with especially since I was moving and needed to come up with a design to send out to family and friends.

For this card we had to use one of the Flip Set stamps. Lucky for me, and for my idea we did not have to use all the images that the Flip set comes with. I ended up only using one of the images and cutting it apart. I love how many uses these stamps have when you take a minute to think outside of the box.

Wendy wanted us to make a card featuring her favorite color which is green. Yahoo Yahoo I love working with Green.

This card is a play off of one that a member of the Circle of Friends made for a challenge All things _______ shaped.

I am really disappointed with the quality of photo/scan no matter what I did I couldn't get it not fuzzy. I think it has to do with the fact that it is very layered.

The original plan had an additional affixing to the lower right saying "Just a little note" but when I put it on I thought it looked a little to planned and took away from the eye scrumptiousness.

This card also uses one of Wendy's newest line of stamps. Quartet Series Stamps

I stamped one of the squares all over the back and then on a separate sheet of paper that I had sponged with Twinkling H2Os I stamped the coffee cup covered it with Diamond Glaze and cut it out.

The ribbon is from my cousins wedding and I thought it was a perfect addition to this card with the lovely blue rhinestones.

And of course I had to use Etta :)

I hope you enjoy these pieces, I had fun making them and look forward to the next assignment. I realized when I sent off the photo's to Wendy that I have now been making samples out of her lovely stamps for a year now! Boy how fast time flies!

Weekend Marbelling

Last week a friend of mine asked if I would make her some First Communion commemorative prayer pieces. Of course I said yes! And immediately the idea of making them look like pages from an old bible popped in my mind. So that meant time to pull out the marbling supplies and get to work.

I have been wanting to make some marbled paper for a while now and this gave me the perfect excuse.

I was a little rusty but once I got in the groove ten sheets came out satisfactory. I think I might have had a bad spot in the product that keeps the paint from sinking but I'll work around those.

I did a lot of playing with the colors this time. The First communion pieces that I am making 2 are for girls and one for a boy so I needed some masculine colors and two separate feminine color combinations. I have never worked with purple or pink before and quickly learned that both like to sink but after a page or two that was easily remedied.

The red ones are my second favorite and they did not turn out quite as red as I wanted them to but hind site that is probably good because I have a lot of green on those pages also and it may have ended up looking too christmasy.

These are actually my favorites. They are not normally colors I put together, brown, blue and greens. The one on the left I made a mistake and forgot to rake my ink before adding the design but I think it looks pretty cool regardless.

Anyway it was over 100 degrees in my garage this weekend and it took me forever to make these ten pages. But boy did I have fun and I wish that I had more time to play. I think next time I will use the same colors over and over and play with different designs.

Hope you enjoy!

Roses are Red

This week over at ABC Challenge the letter is R...

R is for Roses

Now I don't have a single rose stamp so I tried to find some paper with roses on it...nope none of that either...conclusion since hubby doesn't give me enough roses I must try to avoid reminders :)

I did find this image from Altered Pages and then everything started to come together. I hope you enjoy my Roses contribution.

Up and Running...Kind of

Well, I am finally back. And the studio is almost completely ready. I say almost because I don't have any off the art on the walls but everything is put up and I was even able to make a piece yesterday.

So on the left is what it looked like once I got most of the boxes from the move unpacked. Below is a photo of the fabulous new tool box that my DH bought me to store all my supplies in. Believe it or not the gigantic tool box is almost all the way full. There may be a drawer or two that is empty but I've got plans for those drawers.


Back in Mississippi I was able to put most of my supplies in the closet. It was a nice walk in with built in shelves. The closet here is by no means small but it is shaped totally different and I did find it a challenge to fill it in a user friendly manner. That's why there is not a good shot of that inside of the closet, I'm still working on it.

The items on top of the desk is the contents of the most recent Paula's Kit Club. She held my May box until I got moved it...I am going to go up and play with it in just a few minutes!



When I look at the clean pictures they don't seem that neat to me, my DD has a bunch of toys on the floor and I think the angle I took the pictures at was not great but I do promise that it is nice and organized.

I mentioned earlier that I was able to put a piece together. Since the start of the moving process over a month ago I have missed out on a ton of fabulous themes at One Powerful Hour.




The current theme is Lace so I decided to make a piece about a movie that I can't even remember I just know that the Title is "Arsenic and Old Lace" it is an old movie that I saw once black and white classic. Obviously it made a lasting impression but I could not tell you if it was a mystery or a comedy. I do however really like my piece and hope you do too!

A bird does not sing...

This week over at One Powerful Hour my good friend and fellow COF member has set the challenge as "In Flight"

A few months ago I went to a stamping convention and picked up a fabulous bird themed grab bag. Inside was a transparency with the phrase "a bird does not sing because it has an answer a bird sings because it has a song." I based my submission this week off of that phrase.

I cut out a number of bird shapes and used them as masks. Painting with various shades of blue metallic paint all over the card. When that was dry I overstamped using a music score stamp. Next I attached some bookprint that I had brushed with an orangish shade to match part of the bird.

The Fabulous yellow bird was part of an old celery advertisement that I received in a Paula's Kit Club. As my finishing touches I added a few yellow rhinestones and the phrase.

This card was a lot of fun to make and not counting the drying time it was actually really fast. I think I finished everything in 40 minutes total. Hope you enjoy.

On a different note this will most likely be the last piece of art that I post for a while. Next week all of our household goods will be boxed up and shipped out to CA. I am not looking forward to being without my art outlet.

Je Reve en Francaise

I took another spin over to the ABC Challenge site and this week the theme is

M is for Metallic

so you just know I had to play with this one. To me metallic is anything that shimmers like sparkeling h2o's and glitter. But I decided to challenge myself a bit more than just playing with my regular toys.

Alas, the photo of the card plain sucks. All the colored paper bits are copper and the Eiffel tower is copper so is the glitter around the woman's face. The words on the black are the closest embossing powder that I had to copper and the phrase "Je Reve en Francaise" (I dream in French) was originally red but I went over it with a black permanent marker. When you look at it with the naked eye you can't see the red but the scanner sure did pick it up. As a finishing touch I added some black glitter around the edge of the copper card.

I hope you enjoy and I wish I knew how to make a purtier picture of this card.