Friday, December 25, 2015

Humorous naughty Christmas gift

I know these aren't new but I sure have fun making them and, even more fun handing them out to my friends! Let's face it, we all have a few naughty friends!
So, whether you are naughty or nice I hope you will pop over to the Helmar blog today and check out my post and leave me some love!


And if you didn't get everything you wanted from Santa this year, maybe you should go here and check on your Naughty or Nice rating!

This is what I got...lol

Sandee Setliff
"Nice" and getting better all the time! Has shown great improvement with manners and cleaning up the bedroom. A good friend who usually gives good advice. Still has a naughty tendency to leave socks on the floor. Could clean better behind ears and between toes. Is that lint in that belly button? Let's keep working hard!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Doctor Who?

OK, I'm not that bad, I did know who Doctor Who was, but I had never watched any of the episodes. Mainly because I felt so far behind that I didn't want to start in the middle, but it was on my NetFlix bucket list so to speak, lol 

Then I got involved with a new group on Facebook called the Creative Arts Collaboration which is a pretty awesome group. Not only have I learned a lot about setting up my landing page on youtube
( see, I just threw out a fancy word there if you didn't notice....landing page...lol ) but, I also got involved with a BIG project called Doctor Who Dunnit Video Art Crawl.
And here is the fancy schmancy You Tube banner I made...

Even though I was told I did well with my video thumbnails, you can always learn how to make better ones, and I am all about stepping up whenever I can by observing what other successful people do...and emulating them!!

And even my Facebook banner gets updated nowadays with current projects, so if you stop by my home page you will see this one up. It will get changed out when I have a new project to share with you. This works so much better as the daily feed posts can get lost, and this way my newest projects are always on top and you can see what I am up to.


All of this is to point out that the Doctor Who dunnit video art crawl started today and I hope you check out my project I made. :) I really enjoyed doing tons of research on the First Doctor and learning more about how the show was created and lots of fun facts about BBC.

And if you do watch it, could you give me a thumbs up if you like it?
 ( Youtube might show my work more often if I get a lot of those ) and please subscribe to my channel, I really need to get my subscriber numbers up! 


Friday, December 18, 2015

Paperclay standing snowglobe

Welcome to Creative Paperclay®
I don't think it gets any more fun than watching Christmas movies back in my craft room on my computer while I am working away. I really enjoyed using the 3D cookie cutter to create my snowglobe out of Creative Paperclay.  I also used ColourArte's Twinkling H20's to color him in and he just sparkles!

Here is a short video slide show showing you exactly how I created him and if you want to play with some Creative Paperclay then you can go HERE to order some of your own!

Have you tried Paperclay before? What do you make?

I am entering this in"
ColourArte's Challenge #6 - Winter Wonderland

and hoping that a cookie cutter is a die :)
Simon Says Die Crazy

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Silver and Gold

It's always hard at this time of the year, the beautiful Fall leaves have dropped and snow hasn't fallen to cover all the boring grayness out there. 
But adding silver and gold leaf to my handmade paper sure brightens my day. 

I always store all the pieces left over from leafing projects in a container. First I painted the backside of a Maple leaf with glue and pressed it down on my paper and then just poured the little bits and bobs of leafing directly onto the glue. The edges of the handmade paper were outlined with stickles and the edges of the card are embossed with alternating silver and gold inks and powders.



                                       The Mixed Media Challenge #19 - Silver and Gold

Friday, December 11, 2015

Snowan art journal page

Grumbacher is having a little snowman art contest going on and I decided to enter my melted snowman. After all I live in an area where we usually get one decent snow a year and it melts as fast as it arrives...which is a good thing as most people around here don't know how to drive in it, myself included.

I used an assortment of inks to create the sky, hopefully capturing the radiation of the sun warmth on a winters day. The sun itself was done with a Faber Castell gelato.

The snowman was created with some molding paste applied with a spatula. 

And to give the grass in the foreground some texture I scraped into the wet paint with some short strokes hopefully emulating grass.

A fun page in my art journal book which I am hoping to have completed before 2016 rolls around so I can begin with a new one!
Are you thinking of starting a new journal for 2016?

Linking this up with Paint Party Friday!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

CardMaker Magazine - Winter issue p.58


I love being published and it never gets old to see your work in a magazine :) 

This card featured Arnold Grummers PaperMaking molds. I admit I really love making paper casted molds. They are very easy to make and they are so light that they make the perfect embellishments for cards. 

If you get the magazine I hope you check out my card and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Cookie Exchange party

Wow, look at all the great goodie bags of cookies piled on the table! 
And one of my friends ( Miriam ) added small framed pieces of art for each guest too, what a great idea that was!

My Christmas tree, complete with the North Pole village underneath it. 

My friend Jamie photo bombing the Christmas tree.

Alta picking out one of Miriam's pretty framed pieces of art. 

I wonder what Alta and Jamie were talking about back there? lol Meanwhile Sandy is gathering all her cookies to take home with her.

We had so much fun, playing a Christmas game and drinking egg nog ( Santa's Magic Potion )and snacking on Cranberry-Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip
The best parties are spent with great friends!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Let it Snow..oh please!

Oh how I love the snow, I find it absolutely mesmerizing, that may be due to the fact that I was born in Florida and well, we have 'sandymen' there, lol  I stamped this adorable Susan K. Weckesser snowman on some handmade paper and if you would like to see more of this card plus the cute matching envelope then please visit me today over on the Arnold Grummer Paper Making blog.

Pantone announces its color choices for 2016...personally I LOVE pastels!
PANTONE COLOR OF THE YEAR 2016 - Rose Quartz 13-1520 & Serenity 15-3919
These shades, they say, were chosen to convey rosy warmth and tranquility. 

entering this in:
Snow is a holiday, right? right? well, here in the south it is, all we need are 3 large snowflakes to fall and everything closes up and we go huddle in our homes peeking out the windows cradling  cups of hot chocolate!

and


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Not my usual card...

I only make portrait cards for special friends, but I also will make them as a way to say thank you for being a "patron" of the arts. This gentleman always buys something that I make every time he sees me so when his wife came looking for a birthday card for him I knew I wanted to make him one of my "special cards". I asked her to send me a picture of him and then asked if she wanted something funny or sentimental. 

She asked for funny, and I always run by my customers the sentiments I choose, after all, funny to me might not mean funny to them...lol She however liked my idea.


I've noticed he always picks my cards that have hand stitching on them so I knew I wanted to add some to his card, and went for a whimsical touch by stitching around his glasses and then filling in the lenses with Glossy Accents.


entering this in:

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

a different gift tag

...well, different for me anyway...it's like a paper tag, I mean I stamped on it and added embellishments to it like I would if it was a paper tag, and in a way it is like paper cause it's made out of Creative Paper Clay!


Inspired by the colors over on the Unity Stamp blog {be inspired} challenge

Susan K. Weckesser stamp - The Garden Whatnot Collection

You can visit the Arnold Grummer blog to see a short video of me making the tag itself out of Creative Paper Clay if you would like :)

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Read with a grain of Salt...and a margarita

I love making sassy/snarky quote books for my friends, and they seem to love them too. They are meant to make you smile and laugh not to hurt or offend anyone!!


I picked out on of my favorite pages from the book to enter into 

I love tearing away the top layer of corrugated cardboard to reveal all that yummy texture. I added some tissue paper, a little bit of torn gelli prints, washi tape, stencils and a cutout from a magazine and finished it off with my own handwriting. The other page has the exact same elements except it uses a stamped image instead of a magazine image.

IF you want to see the rest of the book: I made a short slideshow of it.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Illustrating and lettering

I have Joanne's Sharpe's book Whimsical Lettering and she now has a free book club for those who have the book. How awesome is that? 


I love challenges!

I grabbed all the Twinkling H20's that were Fall colors
Mandarin Citrine, Deep Coral, Orange Peel, Purple Sage, and Copper Penny



And a drawing I did for Illustration Friday's prompt - Stuffed
Drawn from a photograph that my niece took of her boy sitting in a basket full of stuffed animals.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Music by the pool

Two of my favorite products are made by Sakura, the waterbrush in a size medium is my to go sketch supplies and the Sakura Watercolor brush pens. I love to carry both of them when taking along my sketch book on vacation because they are so easy to carry with you and absolutely no mess! I did this sketch of a man singing out by the pool on vacation a couple of weeks ago while I was in Florida.

Simon Says Stamp - Wonderful Watercolor challenge


Monday, October 12, 2015

Normal is an illusion...

Hi everyone!
I'm getting my inspiration from 2 places today to create an art journal page just for fun.
First off is the Fall in Love with Art Journaling, with 2 challenges a week with lots of inspiration and a FB page so we can talk about art journaling. Sign up to get the journal prompts delivered to your e-mail! Prompt number 3 is resist.

And next is the Mixed Media monthly challenge to make any project using a word from word search. I found the word black.
 The resist part is the spider web which was drawn in white crayon with a wash of black Ranger Ink over it. Morticia was drawn with a black Sharpie and cut out and pasted on. 


Lettering done with a combination of Neon Jelly pens, white and black pens.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

artcation - day 7

Well, as you read this Anna and I will be driving home. Hopefully mine has not washed away during all the rains we had while I was visiting the semi-sunny state of Florida. We did some filming for an upcoming blog post yesterday down by the beach but I can't share anything yet. I will however leave you with this fun page I did in my journal. 


Saturday, October 3, 2015

artcation - day 6

We had the best ( and only ) great day by the pool. It started off cool and breezy but it warmed up nicely. Anna and I took advantage and headed down to the pool area with our sketch books and supplies. As you can see, we were one of the first people down there.

The empty pool chairs and the closed umbrellas just symbolized that we were there during the off season and how empty the resort was in October! 














On the bright side, we didn't have to fight crowds and it was very nice and quiet too. If we just had better weather, but, I won't complain since we didn't have the rain event that is happening elsewhere...like my poor North Carolina. I'm wondering if my Fairy Lodge by the creek will still be there or if it got washed away.


Later, the sun came out and I actually crawled out from under the umbrella and laid out in the sun and Anna and I actually got into the pool for awhile, although the hot tub was still better, and that's where we ended up lol The resort did have a cookout with some live music to make for a perfect afternoon!

Then we went out to dinner at Pineapple Willeys, which is a cool pier restaurant right out on the beach. This was our view to the right...when we first arrived.

Usually, weather permitting you can have dinner along with a beautiful sunset, but because of the weather, this was all we got...yep, this was the high point of the sun, lol

And by the time we finished, this was the view from the left...





Friday, October 2, 2015

Artcation - day 5

 Thursday morning was cool and breezy with hardly any humidity so we took advantage of the weather to stroll down to the sand bar. The tide was in and it was a beautiful day! 
 

Walking out on the boardwalk is always fun as the waterbirds seem to pose for our entertainment.
Great Blue Heron

White Egret

And last, but not least were the Sand Pipers, Gulls and Royal Terns that were sunbathing on the sand bar.

Anna sat at one of the picnic table watching the boats cruise by.

While I took off for a little beach walk adventure. I found a zillion Fiddler crabs and Hermit Crabs all making their way along the beach, scurrying to get out of my way as I strolled along.

A close up, well, as close as they would let me get anyway of the Fiddler Crabs.

Hope everyone has a great day, I am thinking of all my rain sodden friends back home, hoping they don't float away!!