Spooky

This week over at One Powerful Hour Debbie has set a marvelously spooky theme!

I wanted to go back to my roots for this one...what roots are those? Well, my Glitter Roots of course :) The center panel is entirely glitter! The bats are black glitter and the rest is orange glitter.

I am a little upset that the velum tape shows through so much on the Trick and Treat phrases...it doesn't show up that much in real life, sometimes scans bring out all the flaws...

A few moments ago I received this fabulous string of photo's from my sister. Yes, that is my DH and DD in motion. You can see the smile on my DH's face but what you can't see is that Kudzo is laughing so hard he is having a difficult time holding onto her. When he did this the first time I thought he may pull a joint out of socket or something but that girl is tough! And boy does she love it when Daddy' plays with her...

Hope everyone is having a marvelous week...and a Happy Halloween to you all!

Dream Vacation

Here is my latest Circle of Friends work. This is my entry for Nancy's Dream Vacation Round Robbin Journal.

I have wanted to go on an African Safari for a number of years now. But I am too scared to go and my DH is totally against it. So I guess I will live vicariously through the discovery channel and my journal page.

To start off I distressed some topographical maps using tim holtz distressing inks in Shabby green and vintage photo. The palm trees are stamped in brown ink and painted with Twinkling H2O's.

The Elephants and the Giraffe are stamped on paper that I made using the same distressing techniques, just different colors, as I used on the background paper. It was a very fast and easy way to add some depth to the animals without having to pull out my colored pencils. The Zebra is stamped on white paper and dusted with a bit of yellow and brown ink to make him not so bright.

To finish off the pages I added sand, yes, actual sand all around the edges and made a sand dune on the right hand page.

I know that these pages took more than an hour to put together but I am not sure how much longer...the cutting was a bit time consuming but everything else was really fast, and I still have sand all over my desk but this journal page works nicely for the One Powerful Hour challenge this week of repetition.

A bunch of fun stuff!

I Won the Bi-Monthly Lot-O-Rama at Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group. The theme for August/September was Unique and boy are the ATC's that I received.

The top ATC is from Jan Williams called "Paris Weekend' and she wrapped it in the fabulous orange tissue paper and those are felt pumpkin stickers with a "Smile" rub on. the image of the woman I believe is covered in wax...it is fabulous!

Center Left is from Kim Smith and she has fabulous glitter touches at the neck of her woman and she sent me a wonderful Halloween themed collage image.

Center Center is from Lenna Andrews, she also did the envelope at the bottom of the photo. I have the ATC turned wrong in the photo it should be horizontal instead of vertical. I have gotten the fabulous leaves she used and I am so going to get the little pebbles...it is marvelous.

Center Right is from Teri Calia the words read Shine, distinguish oneself, B, and I Rock is up the side. The letter B is covered with a fabulous clear rectangular pebble. She also sent me some absolutely wonderful Halloween themed charms, a bat, skull and bones and pumpkin...I can't wait to use them.

Thank you all so so so so much...I love every single one of them and they are all very unique. As the winner of the lottery I got to select the theme for October/Novembers lottery...I selected Occasions...I have not made my ATC yet but I am pretty sure I know what i am going to do.

The day before I left for Boston I received this fabulous tag book.

It traveled all the way from England. When I collected it from the post I had no idea what it was or who it was from and I was all giddy with excitement.

Well, it just got better. This is a diva gift from Suse.

What are the Diva's? it is a participate if you can and if you want art exchange. I did not even know that my name had been added as a Diva.

I have the tag book sitting on my art table, I can't decide what side I like better...they all compliment each other so well. The fibers are also absolutely wonderful. I guess to put it bluntly the tag book is Marvelous and I love every single front and back of each tag!

Thank you so so so much Suse for sending your lovely piece to me and thank you Zuzu for adding me as a Diva!

I briefly mentioned that I was going to Boston this past weekend. I went for my youngest cousins 17th Birthday.

October is a huge month for birthdays in my extended family on both sides. So I had quite a few gifts to make. These are my favorites though.

When I was making them I did not realize that the initials would spell O.J. I find that rather amusing... The O is for my cousin and the J my niece...

The center square is hand stamped, painted and lightlyy colored. The rest is all fabrics. I think it is amazing that I had a stamp that looks almost identical to the flowers in the decorative fabric.

I hope they like them...

And last but not least I thought I would throw a picture of DH and Kudzu on here...I have other pictures from this past weekend but this one is my absolute favorite.

We are outside of Mom and Dad's house...the tree in the back is starting to change colors, I wish that we had a fall down here...the tree's were absolutely lovely up in Boston...

Okay well, I am done with this novel...off to work on some projects that I have to mail out this weekend.

Among the Stars

The Fabulous Elisabeth of Sassy Stampin' Momma has set a fabulous theme of "Moon" over at One Powerful Hour.

This Thursday, it's all about....has selected "From the Heart" as their theme this week.

Once again with a combination of these two wonderful sites ideas i have come up with this piece...

The "From the Heart" portion is the frame I used. I am a custom framer who has opened a successful shop and then had to leave it when we moved., it was very hard and sad for me. But without the shop I am not sure where I would be artistically speaking. I can trace back all my art tendencies to that shop so it is very special and close to my heart.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for looking!

A mini ornament

Over at One Powerful Hour ...The Fabulous Louise from Zuzu's Petals 'n' Stuff She has challenged us to use Alcohol Inks on Acetate, if you don't have Transparency that's fine try out one of these other techniques. Alcohol Ink Class

There is an upcoming swap through the Alpha Stamps yahoo group using the 2" Square Pendant Frames. So I decided to try combining the two.

The collage image is from the Square Santa's sheet. Then I covered the image with an acetate sheet colored with various green and red alcohol inks with a tad bit of gold.

To add a little umph i attached green spheres to the outside of the frame and the ribbons. This was a super simple ornament to make and it took no time at all.

Hope you enjoy!

A Strange Combination

Last weekend DH went to Idaho to check on our land and our trees...since they are in a government program so many of them must live each year and that takes constant care...plus we got a really nasty letter this year about maintaining 80% in each row. I could go on but why...

So here is Kudzo out with Daddy in Idaho, she needs a hair cut like there is no tomorrow but we are getting ready to go home for a quick vacation and I am hoping my father will take care of it...so dad, please get out those scissors...

It was such a clear day that you could see for miles and miles and miles so I took advantage of that when taking pictures...kinda wish i had taken this one more close up...pretty sure they are both squinting but hey they so rarely take a photo together it is a shame to waist it. The Mountains in the background are the Grand Tetons...Our land has a fabulous view...can't wait to actually get out there and take advantage of it.

Who would have guessed that DH had such an eye. He took this incredible picture of our Choke Cherry row...the trees had just started to fruit and turn when we got there. I just love the fence in the background, one day we will actually finish fencing in the land...one day, those fences are gawd awful expensive!

Okay this one is just for fun...way down there in that horrible Desert Flight suit is a friend of ours. He is about my height so this is suppose to give you an idea of how big the trees have gotten over the past six years. I know to some of you they look itty bitty but trust me they are huge in comparison to when we planted them. Some of the Blue Spruce were no bigger than my pinkie...it is amazing they lived at all in my opinion especially since we are not out there to get rid of the deer and vols...

All in all the trip was a success...the water has been turned off for the winter and the lines flushed...We have our ski trip all planned out for February so the next photos will be a vast spans of white...that is until around July when we go back out to turn the water back on and see what made it through the winter. Keep your fingers crossed that we maintain the required 80% to stay in the program...

Okay now onto a totally different type of pretty picture...like the title of this post says, a strange combination.

So I have been spending most of my time working on some custom orders that I can not post due to the fact that they are Christmas presents and birthday presents and just because presents. But have no fear I have taken pictures and even have a post or two scheduled...








So here is what I have done that I can post. I finally finished up the second Design Team Assignment from Repeat Impressions. The Christmas portion. I of course have a billion more ideas floating around in my head for the stamps I have received but I have to finish up more of these custom orders before I start playing with fun stuff.

The stamped words are the lyrics to O Christmas tree...all the lyrics...LOL I only knew the O Christmas Tree part...I know the image is hard to see...it is a little better in the photo below...

the background paper is one of my Twinkling H2O creations made with green, gold, and red paints. The brighter green is a stamped image of a balsam fir twig that I embossed randomly all over the card.

The pocket the tag/wall hanging slides into is done in the same fashion. I used the same Twinkling background paper and Balsam Fur stamp. I deconstructed the song after stamping it onto coordinating green card stock and attached it by sewing it on with red DMC floss highlighting each stitch with a red seed bead. I really like the way this turned out. When I originally wrote the plan down I was concerned that it would be boring...

Once I finished the pocket I went back to the tag/wall hanging and decided to add the gold seed bead strung hanging device. On top of that I highlighted the small star at the top of the O Christmas Tree stamped image with gold Glitter.

This project was a lot of fun and very simple even if it was a bit time consuming with the bead stringing and the making of the background paper.

















My second Christmas Card for Repeat Impressions is totally different. I went with the silver and blue combination that has become so popular.

I stamped the stars randomly all over a dark blue heavy weight card stock and silver embossed them. On a separate sheet of paper I stamped the Angel and the Joy images. I painted the angel with the Twinkeling H2O's of course, highlighting her wings with Grey Flocking...The Earth in Joy is painted with Sparkeling H2O's.

I cut Joy out in an oval and dusted the remainder of the image with blue and silver inks. Before attaching them to the card I wrapped Joy in silver DMC floss that I ran through the angels hands and tied into a bow. To finish of the card I wrapped it all with the Silver DMC floss...

And to finish it all off...I must now venture into the realm of the "It was eventually bound to happen"

Last night DH came home with his #19 Tweet Retirement Limited Edition Print that he has been talking about for months. He even had me go and check my framing materials to see what I would need to get it behind glass and up in the office right away.

Well, this one will never grace our walls, DH put it on the kitchen table last night so that I could take it to the frame shop tomorrow...a whopping 24 hours, that is all...it didn't make it. I was working and who knows where DH was, I think he was washing my car (yippie!) Well, Kudzo located a working pen and decided that it was time to color...where did she color??? You guessed it, all over Kevin's prised Print.

I have never seen DH look so upset as when he brought the destroyed print to show me our child's perfect rendering. I told him to see if he could order another one, that I would even buy it for him this time...so far we have not heard back if we will be able to get another one. He has all the planes he has ever flown in model and print form...it will be such a shame if we can't get one...

Well, that is all for now...I know it is a lot...

September Catch up

I have been so busy working on holiday gifts...things that I can't post, it would give away the surprise that I forgot to post some of the fun swaps and Repeat Impressions pieces that I finished in September. So here is a quick recap.

For starters this Gothic Arch covers a slew of challenges from this past week starting with the open Theme Gothic Arches let us play with.

Theme Thursday challenged us with: This week’s theme is “road trip”! Use images that make you think of a “road trip” in your creation this week!

One Powerful Hour wanted us to focus on: This weeks theme is fun and flirty, or down and dirty, it's shoes!
I love a pretty pair of dainty high heals, and I love the comfort of an old ratty tennis shoe. Create a piece of art using any style shoe. They can be the focal point or in the background, maybe the shape of your card, the possibilities are endless.

I think this arch does an okay job with all those things. Not so sure that Theme Thursday will consider a walk around Paris as a road trip...but it would be a big one for me...considering I live an ocean away!

The background paper is an old map of Paris. I then poked random holes at some fun looking locations and strung shimmery DMC Floss from one hole to the next. I stamped a high heal shoe using Versa Mark ink and covered that with Pearl Ex Powder, after sealing that I attached the sight seeing woman and then all around the edge I added sequins filling the center with pink seed beads.


These Fabulous Pennants are for a swap with Alpha Stamps. The requirements were that we must use the Pennant shape and holiday themed collage sheets and or rubber stamps by Alpha Stamps.

I Selected New collage sheet called Old Fashioned Christmas. I attached it to the Pennant and then used Tim Holtz Crackle paints in weathered wood and old paper to cover the rest of the pennant. When that had dried I added the snowflakes which are stamped and glittered.



My finishing touches are the Dresden around the edges and a fabulous silver snowflake that I attached at the bottom.

You can see a lot of the crackle detail and the shimmery effect of the glittered snow flake in the close up picture.









































Last but certainly not least is this piece that I did for Repeat Impressions. A Haunted Mansion belonging to who else by Count Dracula himself.

The background is made using orange acrylic paint. I let it dry and then smeared on in lines petroleum jelly, over that I painted very carefully, a cream acrylic. When the cream paint was dry enough not to smear I wiped the paint off, it removed the clear over the petroleum jelly leaving the fabulous random streaked effect. I thought it was a little to bright and happy so I stippled black and grey ink over the entire house.

All Stamps are from Repeat Impressions, I used the Bats, Haunted Tree, Dracula, Spiders Web, swirls, and Legacy Alphabet.

The swirls are purple pearl ex powder, when I took the photo they showed up blue. Dracula is painted with Twinkeling H2O's and so is the Haunted Tree. The Spiders web and the words are covered in glitter.

As a finishing touch I added the cat and pumpkin trim boarder...

Hope you enjoy!

Fall Fellows

This week, This Thursday, it's all about, gave us a Round Tuit.

I had no idea what this was/is, not a phrase I am familiar with but boy do I love the concept...

we thought that this weeks challenge should be Get a round tuit.
So we want you to think about all those craft projects that you have been meaning to get a round to, choose one and do it. if you are the very odd person who always does everything as soon as they think of it, you can use a round tuit (small round pin dish) either make one, decorate or alter one. Or create a peice reflecting the reasons why you don’t get a round to it. LOL Or as per usual you can use the title in anyway it inspires you.

One Powerful Hour challenged it's participants to depict Fall.

With these challenges combined there was no way that I could put off re working my "Fall Fellows" any longer.

A few weeks ago I made the top card for Repeat Impressions and did not like how it turned out. I was worried I would not have time to re-do it so I turned it in, Thankfully Wendy did not publish it. Giving me time to come up with a new layout and much warmer, richer colors. I really like my new interpretation.

I used Pearl Ex powders on the little leaves in the background. The leaves around the men are all embossed using various shades of embossing powder and the crowning touch is my Dr. Pepper tab that I used like a belt buckle, painted it Gold with a Krylon pen.

Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking.

A Swap and a Journal

Thought I would take a moment and post the items that I dropped in the mailbox today.

So, first the Holiday Pendant is for a Swap. The guidelines were that we would make anything but an ATC and we had to use the Alcohol on acetate technique.

I knew I wanted to do something holiday themed so when I got some extra Pendant shapes in the mail (another swap that I am working on) I decided to use one of the extra and try out various techniques that I plan on using later. I was already familiar with the Alcohol technique.

Most of this is hard to see, I just could not get a good photo. Under the acetate (the part of the image that looks like red and gold rivers of ink) I affixed an image of Santa Clause smoking a pipe. I used two different shade of Tim Holtz's crackle paint. I have never used this product before and i like it, the colors don't blend well though. On top of the acetate I affixed some Dresden/German Scrap and a present charm. The ribbon is threaded through the provided openings in the pendant.

To finish it off I decided to attach the word "Joy" at the bottom, I glittered some letters and ran a shimmery red DMC floss through them. I hope whoever get's this enjoys it, I thought it would make a nice door hanging.



The Circle of Friends do a round Robbin journal and this one is Andrea's. She wanted us to make anywhere between one and three inchies.

I think how she put the journal together is just darling!

We could use any theme we wanted.

I am not particularly fond of inchies...I find that my style does not translate well. I hate not being able to actually stamp on something and I in most cases my stamps are too large for this supper small art form.

However I overcame that fault quite nicely I think. I ended up making three inchies out of faux postage images.

They were not the right size, one side was too long and the other too short so they are mounted on a pink shade of cardstock. I glued them on and sealed the images using a clear sealant mixed with a purpleish shade of pearl ex powder...in other words, they are shimmery.

I have a book that I cut words out of all the time and one on page I found these perfect words that to me make the images more of a set

I added feathers, different ones, to each image on the side where they were a little to short, placed the lovely gold numbers and glued down the words. As a finishing touch I outlined the images and the words in sharpie.

I hope Andrea likes my contribution.

Autmn/Halloween

Well, I have been diligently working, let me re-phrase, diligently playing, to get some Autumn and Halloween themed pieces ready for Repeat Impressions.

Here is what I have come up with...and I still have a few idea's up my sleeve.

Best Witches took no time to make at all and it was fun. I love the Etta image that I received last month and just had to use her again. The Witches face I stamped twice, once so I could cut out a hat for Etta and the second time so that I could make her Halloween mask. I painted the Witches face with Sparkeling H2O's so of course she is shimmery and I used a toothpick I painted black as the handle. The orange and purple threads are DMC floss.
Other stamps I used are the haunted Tree, Bats, and the Best Witches phrase. And can all be found HERE


This one I call, All Dressed Up

What do the ghouls of Halloween do when it is time for them to dress up? Well, the mix and match. I stamps the Witch, Dracula and Frankenstein faces a number of times and painted them all with Sparkeling h2O's. I cut various bits and pieces out of each of them and combined them to make the costumes.

The background paper is various shades of sparkeling H2O sponged on heavy weight cardstock. It has a ghoulishly shimmery effect that is lost when scanned...

The spider Webs have been stamped with an orange glitter powder and I finished it off with the jack-O-Lanterns phrase.

I wanted to make something fast and simple and I love tags. these would be perfect on a cellophane bag stuffed with candy corns or your favorite Halloween treat.

From Left to right
Dracula Tag: I used a decorative paper and cut the tag out. Dracula I stamped on white paper and colored with Sparkeling H2O's. I mounted Dracula and then surrounded him with bats that are done with black glitter. To finish off the tag I added some black Dresden along the bottom and the fibers.

Frankenstein Tag: I stamped Frankenstein on white paper and colored him with Sparkeling H2O's. While he was drying I cut the tag out of decorative paper and then threaded it with a random chriss cross pattern using green DMC floos. To hide the holes I put black brads through them. I then mounted the cut out Frankenstein and added various Halloween stickers along the bottom. i finished it off with a fabulous Halloween colored ribbon.

Witch Tag: Following the same stamp and color process as the other two tags. I cut out the tag from a decorative paper and stamped the spider webs and covered them with purple glitter. Then I mounted the witch, adding a black rhinestone here her wart is and purple rhinestones up the sides. I finished her off withe a piece of black lace and orange ribbon.

All stamps to make these pieces can be found HERE


This one I call Fall Fellows and I am disappointed in it. I love the image of the men in the woods and I was trying to emphasize the image by placing the leaves all around it. However I think I got my leaf colors a bit wrong.

I used marvey Brush markers direct to stamp to get the two toned effect. When the colors blended some of them came out wrong. The bright tealy looking blue is actually a dark green marker but mixed with the ochre you get, well, teal.

I also glittered some of the leaves...I do like those, they are fun.
As a backdrop to all of this I used a stamp called Random leaves. To finish the card off I embossed the edges with gold and I covered the Friendly Gents with diamond Glaze.

if I have time I am going to rework this card I think it will be fabulous If I can get my colors right.


Last but certainly not least is the Harvest Goddess

She is ATC sized and I think that I got the colors just right. the background paper is a Sparkeling h2o mixture using golds and browns and oranges...it is all shimmery.

Onto of that I stamped the Foliage Positive in dark brown ink. The Goddess and the Wheat sheaf were stamped on white paper with brown ink, colored with colored pencils and cut out.

I mounted them all as shown and then lined the edges of the ATC with a green mixed with gold embossing powder.

I hope you enjoy my pieces.