Spooky little greeting

I am up on the {my sweet earth} blog today with a Halloween card that I created to send to my nephew. I am loving the tiny house stamps from the Tumbleweed Houses from Susan K. Weckesser. One of the things I like the most is doodling little people or objects between the houses.

Here is another card which I created using the same doodling process. I really like stamps that allow you the freedom to use them for more than one theme.

I hope you bebop on over to the {my sweet earth} blog and check out my Halloweenie card, I'm sure it won't scare you!

A moment of a life time - Bear Footin' Bears

I have truly enjoyed every moment of Elderbeary.

It all began with drafting the design in the offices with the most awesome people in the world - Meals on Wheels! I enjoyed the process of finding out what they envisioned for their bear and coming up with a design that they liked.

The the work began.

It was back straining work drawing the design onto the bear. I shared a lot of big sighs over the process with Elizabeth who worked in the studio next to me in Art MoB. We had lots of giggles over the amount of sighing that was going on between the 2 of us!!

Elizabeth in the studio beside me sketching out her awesome design!

Drawing on curves is not as easy as you might think.

To having tons of visitors who not only watched my progress but contributed stories of their own like this young visitor who had a long story about why the baby bear should have a name too. The baby bear was dubbed Daisy from here on out.

To the very awesome paints that DecoArts Inc. donated to me! They went onto the fiberglass as smooth as silk!

Painting on curves was another challenge. I wish you could have heard the conversations about this part of the process going on between the 2 studios! We sure did complain a lot!

To the finished bear.

Knowing I would be giving her up soon was a bittersweet moment for me!

To the awesome gentleman at Hills Body Shop who let me come in and fret and fuss over my bear. He treated me with such kindness, letting me inspect Elderbeary before under going his poly-coat. They did a superb job!

To the big reveal and to all the people who liked my bear almost as much as I did! If you can't tell by now, I loved my Elderbeary!

I love my picture that my sponsors made for me and have it proudly displayed in my hallway for everyone to see!

To the best sponsors ever! 

I was very blessed to have this group to work with.

They were supportive, kind and generous and made it all a lot of fun!! 

To seeing her displayed on the streets of our downtown. After many years of seeing all the bears, it made my heart swell to know that Elderbeary would have her picture taken with the thousands of tourists that annually trek to Hendersonville, NC for the Bearfootin' Bears event!

And to my little friend who I happen to catch hugging the bear during the Chalk It Up! on main street ( which is run by the awesome Barbara Ferngren Hughes from Narnia Studios ). It was awesome to have a picture of her twice! Once in the beginning stages and once when Elderbeary and Daisy were finished!!

Down to the crowning moment when my bear auctioned off for $4,000.00!!

I was amazed, surprised and grateful that I was able to raise that kind of money! Here is a slide show of the auction:

And this is the article that the Blue Ridge Times of Hendersonville wrote about the event. I am amazed what they wrote about me. Excuse me if I sound proud, but this is the second time in a year that my bear has been written about and my heart beats with excitement that something I made touches everyone this way.

Illustration Friday - Puppet

Pigma Micron and Graphic pens

Peerless Watercolors

Clearprint Vellum journal

Meet my little friend ARTie....he likes to make things.

(like friends)

BOO - tiful pumpkin

Recycling some Halloween projects that I made last year over on the Helmar blog today! Would love some of your spooktacular comments over there!!

How to make glittery spiders and spider web doilies

belated Birthday card

Yeah, I messed up and didn't send my friend her birthday card. I did the Face Book birthday salutations but I know it's not the same and I feel bad! lol

Guilt is a terrible thing.

But on the bright side of things we are having a blog hop!

So I had a little goof the other day and one of my Dylusions ink sprays had been knocked over and it leaked everywhere on my desk. Thankfully nothing important was ruined and for the most part, the spill was soaked up by a paper towel. So waste not, want not...I used it as a flower for my card.

This week is going to be an inspiration-filled, fun-filled festival during our team’s Creatastic Blog Hop.  Join us each day as we share amazing projects created by our Design Team members.   The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team will be sharing projects they create over on their site too.  Both teams will be using Susan K Weckesser Inc products as well as stencils by The Crafter’s Workshop.  
Now, make sure you visit both blogs, because we are going to have some fun prize packages given away each day on both sites.  You need to leave comments each day for a chance to win!  We also encourage you to stop by and become a fan of Susan K Weckesser Facebook Page and The Crafter’s Workshop Facebook Page. 

Illustration Friday - Octopus in Trouble

For me, the challenge of Illustration Friday is trying to get the images in my Clearprint journal to interact with each other. Since this week's prompt is "trouble", I added a silhouette of a man getting ready too grab his dinner. Calamari anyone?

On the back side is where I drew the man's silhouette with a Sharpie marker.

tissue box

I signed up ( with a few of my friends ) to get a Krylon Mystery box.

FUN!

We got 2 cans of Short Cut spray paint ( I got gold and black )

some buttons

fabric

burlap

 and a small wood crate from Walnut Hollow

In order to participate we agreed to write a blog post and show what we made.

I made a tissue box, very simple and classic.

 I really lucked out color wise as my bedroom is black and gold too :)

I began my lightly sanding inside the handles and then spray painting the box black. I cut out a cover and stapled it on to the top of the box and sprayed it also with the black paint which covered up the staples. This gave me a hinge to open and close my box.

I used the metallic gold spray paint on one of the tan buttons and the burlap to dress them up a bit. I cut circle flowers out of the white fabric and adhered them with Helmar's 450.

And something fun to watch for all the crafters and Pinterest addicts out there....you know who you are....

The Wonderful World of Scavenging

Ever find yourself redoing a page from your journal but with a slightly different twist?

Here's a very short slideshow of my first Wizard of Oz page.

I am having so much fun playing with this journal and its prompts!
This page only had an alteration - stripes.
Rummage & Ransack kit

I didn't intend to make another Dorothy page but here's how it came about.
my thought process:
First action - to get out my Pocket Scavenger
Alteration - Make stripes
First thought was to paint stripes and write my journaling on each stripe.
Next thought, was to try and come up with something more unique.
Third thought was to do witches legs. ( stripey leggings )
Even went and got purple and orange paint out of the cabinet.
Sat down and really read what was written on the 2 pages
in front of me.
Can't show one of them to you as I already painted on it, lol
sorry
But it was defining what a scavenger is.
Now the fourth thought roaming around in my head began to take shape.
witch = wicked witch of the west = Wizard of Oz
Fifth thought, wasn't Dorothy a true scavenger?
Sixth thought - wasn't the shoes a major focus for an inanimate object?
Sixth thought, I'm doing a Dorothy page again!
lol

The page on the left might be the only page in the book that I don't alter and it fit perfectly with my Dorothy theme too!

Interesting note:

Here's a list of some things you might not have known about the movie.

Time for the Autumn create to live challenge!!


I chose my colors and the stitching stamps from the Grandma's needlepoint stamp set from Susan K. Weckesser's line to create my page.

Missing you everyday card

LOVE Unity stamps and their {be inspired} challenge!

I love the color palette, so as usual, I am sticking to that part of the challenge.

Here is my card using Susan K. Weckessers's stamp Tumbleweed Houses along with the sentiment from Angie Blom's Array of Bottles stamp.

I alternated stamping the houses in black ink and then on colored paper and in between the houses I used my Pigma Micron to doodle some trees, bushes, a mailbox and a potted flower. 

Thanks for looking!

The Pocket Scavenger

I admit, I resisted this journal as it wasn't "art journaling".

I have revised my way of thinking!

It's fun and has oodles of fun inspiration in it.

Anyway, I made a kit which revolves around this journal, please stop over at the Frosted Designs blog and check it out.

Illustration Friday - Octopus

Octopus

In Clearprint's Vellum Field Guide Journal
using Pigma Microns and Dylusions Ink

for Illustration Friday

The front side of the page is where I drew the outline of the wine glass and his head peeping over the water. Colored in the stem, the water in the bowl of the glass and the top of the Octopus's head. Then wrote Octopus on the bottom portion of the glass.
*** Note to self: wait for pen to dry on vellum before adding wet medium***

On the backside of the page I drew the entire Octopus along with a small sunken ship and painted him in.

Unity blog Hop

Hi everyone, I am joining in today with the Unity group on their blog hop.

I am guest hopping because my Susan K. Weckesser inspired tag won the Unity {be inspired} Challenge using the What's Up Gnomey? stamp set! You can see it here. It was an awesome prize package too, I cannot wait to get it!!

I love their challenge because you get to choose what style inspires you to be creative. There is a color challenge ( my favorite ), a card and a layout sketch challenge. Really, something for everyone!

This is my card ♥

I was inspired by the beautiful colors and used the Susan K. Weckesser stamp One of a Kind Winter { Christmas Campaign } to create my card. I stamped him once on the Kraft paper and then again on a piece of white paper. I cut out his little body and adhered it over the top of the stamped image.

I also love doodling and added some whimsical borders of my own using my Sakura Pigma Microns and Signo white pen.

I love that the Sakura Moon Glow pens show up so well on top of black ink! I colored in the fringe of his scarf and hat and also the buttons in a bright pink. The rest of his hat and scarf were colored in with Dylusions inks using a water brush. 

Make sure to leave lots of comments so that you can win an awesome hop prize from Unity Stamps!
I can't wait to hop along and see the awesome designs from the Unity team!

Halloween cards

This has got to be one of the easiest cards to make and so cute too. Just tear and inks strips of paper!

 I love the gelli print eyes, they have so much more character because of the paint layers! I just cut the circles from the left over scrap from a pull. LOVE!

This might be the scariest thing yet about Halloween! ;)

And for a little one, something fun and not too scary! I enjoyed using my Susan K. Weckesser Insta Cute stamp for the photo strip.

Once you go gnome...

We are asked to make cards this month over at the {my sweet earth} blog and to show fun and different methods.

My favorite method ( which I happen to think is fun ) is altering a stamp.

Currently, my favorite stamp to alter is the gnome from the "What's Up Gnomey?" stamp kit from Susan K. Weckesser.

You know what they say..,

Once you gnome, you never go home.

Not sure, exactly what that means, but nevertheless it seems to fit!

lol

Here's a sneak peek at my card...

Please bop on over to the {my sweet earth}blog and leave me a leave gnomey love ♥ You gnome you want to ♥

Deer pets

Deep in the forest is the theme over at Art Journal Journey.

This isn't a stretch for me as I live right by the woods, and my favorite visitors are the deer.

Here is a picture taken of the newest members to join the wooded landscape of North Carolina. Aren't they cute?

As you can imagine ( or maybe not if you look at my "garden" ) it's quite a challenge to try and grow flowers with my deer pets. But, the New Guinne Impatient has stood the test of time as they aren't so tasty. As you can see, mama knows but the babies had to learn on their own. It didn't take too long for them to give up eating them.

I am just finishing up my page for Clearprint and will be sending it in on Monday. Again, using the front and the back page of the vellum to create my page.

The front is painted with DecoArts Multi Surface paints to bring everything to the forefront.

The back page was painted with the same black and a greyed down version of the paint and then stroked over with various inks to create, hopefully, a misty view of the mountains in the background.

I really love the dimension that painting ( or drawing ) on vellum creates! You should check out Clearprint and order your own.

Rebels by Jill Williamson

Jill Williamson is a novelist, dreamer, and believer. Growing up in Alaska led to love books, and in 2010 her first novel, By Darkness Hid, won the Christy Award. She loves working with teenagers and gives writing workshops at libraries, schools, camps, and churches. Jill lives in Oregon with her husband and two children. Visit Jill online at www.jillwilliamson.com

This is a teen fiction about forgiveness and hardship and how you handle both of these in the face of adversity. The 2 main characters in this book, Omar and Mason are trying to handle the Safe Lands upheavals in their own way. By uniting together to discover the truth about Liberation they understand that "Tomorrow is everything." 

One of my favorite quotes from this book was from their mother who told Omar "Worry doesn't take away the dread of tomorrow. But it does take away today's strength." Their continuing struggle to improve the lives of everyone, (even their enemies)leaves you with a strong sense of hope for humanity. That not everyone in this world is looking out for number one. What a great concept to give to teens reading this book.

I would recommend this book, not only for teens but for everyone. I liked Jill's writing style, it was clean and descriptive. Even though I had not had a chance to read the previous books in this series, I was able to catch up to the current circumstances of the Safe Lands and was able to follow the plot very well. 

Overall, the message here was very inspiring. Trust in God and help your fellow man as much as possible. We never know what another person is going through and sometimes we may forget that they are struggling too. It's not as easy to forgive people for the hurt they caused you but we know that everyone has personal hardships; whether we inflict them upon ourselves or caused by another person.

You can get this book at any of these locations:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Christian Book Distributers
• Family Christian

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Illustration Friday - Silence

Titling this one as

Space

which I think is very silent.

So this is my new page.

Front page:

 The large and medium stars, outlined in black and then again in a sparkle pen, filled in with a sparkle paint. The moon's shape is outlined in black and the word silence in black.

While I was taking pictures the sun decided to come out and let me show off some of the sparkle that the page actually has. 

And the back of the page.

The moon and the background around the stars are water colored in with Inktense Blocks.

Now, let's see how each page affects the other pages.

This is where the fun comes in...well, for me anyway!

Remember the first page?

This is how it looks layered over the second page.

The stars are put even further in the background...and yes, I purposely choose stars for my silent theme knowing that it would double nicely with the wish theme.

1.Blowing out a candle, making a birthday wish.

2.Wishing upon a star.

Now, I got an unexpected plus with the backside of the silent page, with the boys face showing through the moon. Always fun to get a bonus image.

I'm really enjoying playing around with my new journal from Clearprint :)