Steadfast and resolute....so not me!

First I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and secondly, no resolutions that cannot be kept!

I feel so strongly about that, that even my cards for New Years reflect my laid back attitude this year, AND you can read about my "maybe" resolutions for the New Year HERE.

My feather stamp is handmade and I used acrylic paint to stamp on some inked up goodies I had laying around...ok, they were stored and hoarded. lol

The first one is from the sheet of wax paper that I keep in the bottom of my spray box.

 I just love how the ink sits on top of the wax paper and dries then gets layered with more inks. Over time you can truly create some beautiful papers this way.

 Next is a paper towel. We all know about blotting up inks from our Dylusional journals and those paper towels can become works of art as far as I am concerned.

I do keep seperate towels for blotting up colors that look good together and make sure to stop when they are saturated with just the right amount of color. I also pull the layers of paper towels apart for a more translucent look.

This is a bit of tissue paper, crumpled up and used to blot inks colors.

The key to good colors here is to not overdo it, the tissue really absorbs the ink.

Last, is not my favorite I admit. It's a dryer sheet. Maybe I don't like the muddy colors?

It does have great texture but even the acrylic paint soaked into the sheet too much. I'm still trying to find uses for these sheets.

I love the play on the authors name. Did you know a feather is a symbols for a new beginning? Very appropo for a New Years card I think.

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And for my friend Tamiko, who wanted to see the stamp I made, here it is, in all it's painted goodness.
 It's drawn with Puffy Paint on cardboard.

 I use it on my gelli printing, this is the first time I used it to make a card with it. I rather like it :)

imbricate: adjective

lying lapped over each other in regular order
pronunciation

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Little Scrap Pieces - Fun Friday Link Up Party

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - #55 New Beginnings

 

Well, the baby gift card holders were a big success at the Art MoB and I sold all of them so here are their replacements :)

Cricut - Doodlecharms

Sundays with Sandee - water paper tearing

What is collage?

Did you know that Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque launched collage into the mainstream art community in the early twentieth century? Collage is an artistic composition of materials and objects that are glued down onto a surface and it can be as formal, challenging and expressive as painting.

Today we are going to let the printed word speak for us. In other words, collect magazines and cut out words or phrases that catch your eye. I am looking for an upbeat tempo here to counterbalance our inner critic page from last week.

Once you've collected your words, study them. Look at the different types of shapes and colors. Groups similar words together, then start arranging your words around until you find an arrangement that suits you.

On my page, I used 5 words that were printed in red to grab the eye and help focus the eye to the center of the heart. 

Mt video for this piece can be found over on the Frosted Designs Blog. I hope you get a chance to play along and let your printed words speak for you. I'd love to see what you create.

paraphernalia: noun

accessory items 

pronunciation

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You got some time to enter the Frosted Designs challenge: My Favorite Things

You need to use at least 3 of things that are underlined from the song from The Sound of Music.

I used, brown paper ( branch ), wings ( bird ) and silver white ( flower )

I used the Printshop cardstock stickers to create a background, which I separated the thanks and outlined it so it would stand out. The printed background paper came from the November Mixed Media Kit and the eye is a Maya Road resin flower.

other assorted paraphernalia:

The chipboard bird was gifted to me

Cricut - French Manor ( branch ), p. 39

Helmar - 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Also entering my thank you card in:

Cute Card Thursday - #301 Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody - #36 Anything Goes

Flat Susan - Christmas edition

 When Flat Susan arrived I set her up in the awesome lodgings of the Smokey Mountain Retreat. A beautiful bed and breakfast Inn where she could enjoy the mountainscapes of North Carolina. The forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. Susan said she wanted to get a taste of our southern Appalachian culture. 

Susan discovered that in North Carolina there are 1,600 growers producing an estimated 50 million Fraser fir Christmas trees growing on over 25,000 acres which represents 90% of all species grown in North Carolina. She was impressed that we are ranked second in the nation in number of trees harvested. 

After her educational tour of the Christmas tree farms, Susan took an afternoon to watch some local kids playing hockey at a nearby school

They invited her to their clubhouse where she was given the honorary title of the "only girl allowed". They also built a snowman and she loved playing in the snow.

Unfortunately, she could not get a grasp of the tire swing, and the boys said she wasn't fit to be a member and they kicked her out of the club because she was, after all....a girl.

 Susan, dejected and rejected from the boys club, went to visit Santa in the hopes that he would cheer her up. Santa had other plans for Susan and decided that reading 50 Shades of Christmas to her would be thing to get her out of her slump. Susan kept wondering if Santa had a lump of coal in his pocket, or was he just glad to see her?? She could not decide...but he was indeed very jolly!

Santa, having claimed that Susan was indeed a very good girl indeed let her ride one of his reindeer.

And the elves said that she could join their club any day and took her sledding with them and for hot chocolate afterward. They told her that they just like to smile, that smiling was their favorite thing...and Susan replied that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. :)

Next, Susan is on her way to visit Kimberley in Davidson, NC where I hope she will have a great time. 

debonair: adjective

dressing and acting in an appealing and sophisticated way : fashionable, attractive, and confident : suave, urbane

or

 lighthearted, nonchalant

pronunciation

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Merry Christmas Eve to all my friends across the internet world. It's been a fun year with many changes and I am thankful that you were here with me, encouraging me along the way. I really, really appreciate those that take a moment to stop and leave me a comment ♥

Today's card is a mixture of stamping and zen dangling.

And of course some dimension. Throughout the year, popping up my cards using Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots still remains my favorite!

I can predict that more zen dangles will make their way onto projects in 2014 as this is a new obsession with me. Plus I have finally found a way to use some of those teeny tiny stamps, like these snowflakes that I have dangling. 

Inkspirational - #46 Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Anybode - #36 Anything Goes

Frosted Designs December Kit - paper, felt, stickles
Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing Pens
Unity Stamp - Susan Weckesser, One of a Kind Winter
Helmar - Liquid Scrap Dots
Sakura Glaze pens

Sundays with Sandee

What is art journaling?

It's best defined as having a visual conversation with yourself.

This segment is all about tackling the inner critic that resides in our head taking up way too much precious space and defragmenting our self esteem into tiny broken shards. The sad thing, is, we let it. We sit there and listen to all the horrible negative thoughts that it whispers into our ears. And we believe it.

I've never understood why we let that happen and have been doing some research on the side as to how to deal with this inner voice. One exercise is to create a visual image of our critic, to even name him, so that when we hear these words that tear us down, we are then to imagine our picture that we created and talk back to it. We are suppose to stand up to the voice that wants to strips us of our artistic realm and buries us in common place mediocrity.

This is mine and his name is Schnoz, I am sure you can figure out why, lol  I was amazed at how effortlessly I was able to do the conscious stream of writing, it literally flowed from my heart rather than from my brain about the negativity that Schnoz likes to project onto me. I also wrote Scnoz a dear John letter and sent him packing.

If you want to take a step in evicting your inner critic from your space in your head then please hop over to the Frosted Designs blog for my Sundays with Sandee video where I create my inner critic for you and try to explain stream of consciousness writing. I hope you get something out of this experience.

Frosted Designs 2013 December Mixed Media Kit

It's time for the December kit reveal over at Frosted Designs and I have to say I have been thoroughly enjoying this kit with all it's shimmery goodness! Here are some glimpses of what I made so far and still have tons of product left to keep making more!

This project was all about recycling, the Santa came from my down sizing some Christmas knick knacks,  I thought it would be perfect to set atop a recycled jar and fill it with chocolate kisses for a quick and easy gift. ( The Santa was adhered with Helmar's Silicone Adhesive Sealant. ) I wrapped some of the Pink Paisley paper around and sewed some bells to a strip of the paper and then adhered it to the jar with Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive. 

I took all the vellum pieces and made a mixed media angel card out of them. ( You can get the pattern for it over at the Frosted Designs blog ) I also hand sewed the Mode micro beads and embellished her with Ranger's Frosted Lace stickles and the Prima Say it in Crystals.

A Zen Dangled card..what fun to make and I love the Susan K. Wecklesser snowman stamp!

This is my main project from the kit. A Let it Snow gift box. You can see the box in it's entirety over at Frosted Designs, but here is a reminder, to save those ribbon spools after you completed your gift wrapping. They make fun little shaped boxes to give a gift in.

I hope you go over to the Frosted Designs blog and check out my creations, and then go visit the Frosted Design's store where you can purchase this awesome kit along with many other fabulous products! You'll also see why I have offered you some Jingle Bells sheet music to print out and have fun with ;)

Frosted Designs December 2013 Mixed Media Paper Kit

I love all the sparkly goodness in this Mixed Media kit from the Frosted Designs store!! Imagine having a kit delivered to your door once a month, filled with awesome surprises!
It's divine, just let me tell you!



I had sew much fun playing with this kit and already made several projects but over on the Frosted Designs blog you can see the sewing tutorial video and the card I made for my brother. I love using mixed media on cards too, not just canvases and art journals.

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I also had an interesting day getting my car inspected.
It passed!

Click HERE to read 50 Miles of Introspection

May Arts - Christmas Challenge

Our stockings hang upon a wall.
We have no fireplace at all!
You see the problem is quite clear.
Santa, how will you get in here?

We heard a legend. Is it true?
Of magic only you can do.
We'll leave out any plain old key,
and mark it "Santa" so you can see.

Your magic makes the key fit right,
so you can get inside that night.
Thank you Santa, here's our key.
The milk and cookies are on me!

Helmar - 450 Quickdry Adhesive

Cricut - French Manor

May Arts Ribbon

Entering Santa's Magic Key in:

Fantabulous Cricut - #191 Anything but a Card, holiday edition
Anything but a Card - #30 Anything Goes with a Holiday Twist

Sunday with Sandee - Mixing it Up!

It's that time of the week, you know, when I make a fool of myself trying to make a video and not stutter and stammer all over the place, lol 

My question is this:

How much fun are you allowed to have?

 I think I maxed out my quota for the day mixing up these pastel shade of spray inks! 

Seriously, beautiful colors!

This is my page I made:

My newest addiction: zen dangles!!

If you want to see the video to see how I made the inks... or just to laugh at me in the video....

( I messed up the ending...still learning! )

The December Mixed Media Kit reveal is up over on the Frosted Designs Blog, make sure you go check it out. It's glittery, it's sparkly, it's AWESOME!

I'm going to enter my art journal page in:
Creative Inspiration - Inspired by Anything Goes