Just shut up Sandee

I can remember the first time I had a story printed about me in the local newspaper and being so excited and then totally dismayed at the picture they posted of me, or the time they wrote another newspaper story about me and thinking...seriously, that is a little exaggerated! My feelings for being put in print have diminished over time because now, my first thoughts are...

what are they going to do to it? 

Now, don't get me wrong, I still have kept every article, every story ever written because it is exciting, it is an ego boost to have you memorialized in print.

But it just makes me wary nowadays.

My latest publication is a feature article written about me and about the upcoming Artists Studio Expo show coming up on July 25th in the Bold Life magazine. If you would like to read the article then you can go here. 

Now I am NOT trying to be sour grapes and all, and I AM appreciate of being featured in the magazine but sometimes I just say "huh?" when I see what they do, in this case it's the picture they put up on the page next to the article. If you go read the article you will see that the picture below doesn't correspond as well to the article as the one I sent to them, which was Night Watch...sigh...oh well, as one of my fellow artist from the Art MoB pointed out to me, any publicity is good publicity.

If you want to see the "how to" behind the Laced in Copper canvas, feel free to check out the Helmar blog post... as it has nothing to do with the article..smh

***update 7 - 19 - 15 ***
( Guess I cannot complain too much because since I published this post, this canvas has sold )

Laced in Copper- $175.00 12x24" mixed media canvas - acrylic, hand stitching, metallic floss, beads with acrylic skins

This is the one that I sent in to the magazine for them to publish with the article, which correlates to the questions that they asked me :) Although they didn't use it in the printed magazine they at least used it in the online piece!

12x36 "Night Watch" Mixed Media Magazine Collage canvas $225.00

I am always amazed that they write anything about me, so I need to just shut up, huh?

Anyway, check back on Sunday to see how the show turned out!

Poltroon: noun

a spiritless coward

pronunciation

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Tracy's November 2013 Creative Dare...

in miniature :)

I tried to use Tracy's color palette, with the colors I had on hand and had to cut the quote short so it would fit the tiny journal. I also used stamps instead of stencils, it was easier to work with.

entering my Prayer Journal into:

Challenges 4 Everbody - #33 Anything Goes

Simon Monday Challenge - Got ink?

ink pens by Sakura, Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing Set

One of the things that I can look back over the year on and be thankful is about my experience with the Art MoB. I have been so lucky to have had such a good year that I made the decision to move up to an actual booth. Yep I am no longer just a wall display artist..I am in the big leagues now...well, more like the little leagues...lol

Not only will I be able to hang up more work but I plan on adding 2 more card bins and a low table to display my 3-D projects!

Anyway, I am very grateful for all the lovely people who brought my art into their homes, they may never know how much they touched my heart by doing so.

filial: adjective

of, relating to, or befitting a son or daughter

 having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring

pronunciation

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♥ WOYWW ♥
Have you missed me? I certainly have missed you!! I have been sooooooooo very busy since joining 3 DT's and business is picking up again at the Art MoB now that winter is over. On my desk today is a mini album that I tried to sell last fall, but maybe it will get a better reception earlier in the summer. Plus, revamping it it with some prettier ribbon might help...crossing fingers!

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I made it to the top 3 finalists for designing a wooden book for Genuinely Jane Studios, would be honored if you would go visit there and cast your vote for me...( I designed the camera. ) I REALLY , really need your vote!! ♥

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Little Yellow Bicycle 

Now for more fun stuff I entered the sketch challenge for NSB day:

And a close up of my lay out:

Little Yellow Bicycle:

cork background - Making the Grade

dark brown woodgrain paper - Acorn Hollow

light brown striped paper, chipboard shapes, sentiment words, Fresh Verse - Fern & Forest Boy

canvas butterfly sticker, cork sticker letters - Naturals ( colored with distress stain )

Clear cut - Saturdays

I love how 5 different paper groups merged so well together, mixing them up is the best way to get the most use out of your stash!

I love that the canvas stickers can be colored in but since I needed both orange and white to balance out the lay out, I only added a tiny bit of color.

Here, I did darken the cork letters with distress stain so they would show up better against the light colored backgrounds.

I mixed in some chipboard banner pieces that I wrote on with a permanent marker along with the Fresh Verse so I could make a sentiment.

other:

Ranger - Vintage Photo distress stain
American Crafts - Slick Writer
Faber Castell - PITT pens
Really Reasonable Ribbon - twine

Trending words

Diaphanous: adjective

characterized by extreme delicacy of form 

(yes, it also has other meanings, but this was the meaning for how it was used)

pronunciation

 

when: Lookups spiked on April 9, 2013

 

why: The pop star Shakira – a new judge on NBC's singing competition The Voice – praised an 18-year-old contestant by saying, "Your voice is so diaphanous at times."

 

Diaphanous is currently in the top 1% of lookups and is the 144th most popular word on Merriam-Webster.com.

 

I love the idea that media does increase our curosity and learning experience.

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Card Makin' Mamas - Time for Ribbon

Bitten by the Bug2 - Welcome Baby

Sister Act Card Challenge - #2

Craft-room challenge - So Sentimental

 

 Here the GC is removed, and the card itself can be used as a tag or embellishment for the baby's scrapbook.

Little Yellow Bicycle - stickers

Really Reasonable Ribbon - ribbon

Cricut - Doodlecharms cartridge, p. 106

Faber Castell - PITT pen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Taking a walk downtown behind the Art MoB:

The tulips will be gone all too soon...but I love how the streets look...

This is the way to paint the back of a building now, and am so proud that there is no graffiti on it too...respecting the mural artists!

 

 I know we are all use to seeing signs church signs with inspiring words, but it made me smile that this was a Dry Cleaners signage.

 

heinous: adjective

 hatefully or shockingly evil : abominable

 

 pronunciation

"Humans have contrasted love with hate and good with evil for eons, putting love and good on one side and hate and evil on the other. The etymology of "heinous" reflects the association of hate with that which is evil or horrible. During the 14th century, English borrowed "heinous" from the Middle French "haine," meaning "hate." Over time English speakers came to use the word to reflect the sense of horror evoked by intense hatred."
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Helmar April Challenge- "Days-of-the-week"

 

Now I admit, this challenge took a creative effort on my part because I don't do scrapbook pages, well, hardly ever anyway...plus what I create goes up for sale. I wish I could make projects for myself but I don't have the time, I must make things to go to the Art MoB, and trust me, I don't mind one bit that things sell so well that I have to keep up with the demand...nope, not a problem at all! lol

 

So I went looking for quote inspiration that I thought would correspond with the challenge,
 and found this:

The canvas is covered in Vintage Street's Tinted Tape so it's a very glossy surface, so I used Helmar's 450 to adhere the Prima flowers and the word strips to it.

 

I used Helmars Gemstone Adhesive to glue on the Kaiser Craft rhinestones onto the Queen & Co. orange felt scroll and used 450 onto the Really Reasonable Ribbon.

 

Now the most fun came from a problem.
 I wanted to add a leaf, but the leaf colors weren't matching the over all ambiance of the canvas...I know, I'm weird like that. So I made my own, and I LOVE how they came out, adhered them with the 450.

 

I got quite obsessed with making them..as you can see. They are cut from the wax paper/tissue that gets laid in the bottom of my spray box and which I have used from time to time as many of you know. After they are cut out I dipped them into my Tim Holtz melting pot that has all the UTEE in it that has turned amber brown.

OK, anyone else thinking butterfly wings?

 

Also entering this wall art in:

 

Little Scrap Pieces - Fun Friday May Flowers

equivocal: adjective

1.  subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse

or

uncertain as an indication or sign

 

2.  of uncertain nature or classification

or

 of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing : undecided

also

 of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitude

pronunciation
 

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entering this in:

 

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013

 

Ranger Seasonal Color Palette: April 

 

I didn't have to combine the 2 challenges but they did seem to walk hand in hand this time around. I also didn't have to use Ranger's sentiment that they used on the color prompt, but I thought it was grand and used it anyway, especially seeing that April 22nd is Earth Day
...and I am happy. See, doesn't take much for me.

 

Ranger products:

 

Dylusions, melted chocolate

Distress Paints, wild honey,forest moss,broken china,walnut stain

stickels, frosted lace

Idea-ology word band

Distress Marker, bundled sage

Distress Ink, antique linen
Idea-ology Tissue tape

 

  

other products:

 

Crafters Workshop stencil 261, 97

Cricut - Art Nouvea, p. 54

Creative Memories - Metallic marker

Golden - Molding Paste

Maya Road - chipboard letters

Lil Davis - chipboard corner
Helmar - 450
Close to my Heart - marker
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On Saturday we had our Opening Reception for the 30 Day Challenge at the Art MoB. I think we had a good showing, lots of people showed up. This is the gallery side of the shop.

 

 Here are the artists ( including me ) who participated in the challenge.

 

I will admit to you, my bloggy friends that I try to stay away as far as possible during these functions. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than being around people who want me to talk about my art, I start to ramble, I become this scatter brain blob talking about everything and nothing...lol So I stayed up at the corner of our street and handed out flyers about the event....and again I was happy.  



fuliginous: adjective

sooty 

or

 obscure, murky

also

 having a dark or dusky color

pronunciation

 

( OK, there are some words that you just HAVE to try to remember, this be one of them! )

 

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Entering my card today in:

 

CARDZ TV - Don't Quote Me Challenge #128

Simon SaysStamp and Show Challenge - Quotable

and in

 

Go here to play along with Inkspirational
and in
Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #87 Friendship

 

Which came first? The quote or the sketch?

I haven't a clue...but together they made for a cute Friendship card.

 

 

I replaced the 3 dots in the sketch with a crack in the egg...just goes so perfect with the quote! Stamped the butterfly directly onto the egg and then again on red paper, fussy cut it out and covered it with stickles.

 

No fuliginous colors here :) 

 

Cricut Craft Room - Easter 2010 ( free cut ), egg

Close to my Heart - stamp

StazOn - ink

Ranger - stickles

Reminisce - pattern paper

Faber Castell - PITT pen ( to draw crack in egg and outline )

Cheddar Salad BTN - font

 

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Elizabeth has asked me about my mixed media wall hanging signs, so here is a 6 month re-cap:

 

September - 3

October - 7

November - 2

December - 5

January - 0

February - 0

 

So that's 17 signs in 6 months, and like I said in this post, the Art MoB is tourist driven.
 Signs are trickier than cards I think. I have learned to put them up to sell even when I personally didn't like them, 'cause somebody else might love it. I have sold 3 signs that amazed me as I didn't like them at all :) I've talked with the other artists at the Art MoB and we all agree that it's very hard to discern what will appeal to someone. I've had 'my favorites' up there and it took months for them to sell...

you just never know.

 

Christian based - 4 out of 5 ( they sell well )

mermaids themed - 3 for 3 ( they also sell well )

seasonal - 1 out of 6 ( does not sell very well )

 

The remaining 9 signs that sold are everyday based, ranging in all sorts of different themes.

flehmen: noun

a mammalian behavior (as of horses or cats) in which the animal inhales with the mouth open and upper lip curled to facilitate exposure of the vomeronasal organ to a scent or pheromone
pronunciation

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Stamping for Pleasure - Rudolph Day March
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #6 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

 

  Cricut has been asking for Christmas stuff and one of their requests was for gift card holders. And I got to thinking, why not make Gift Card holders for sale at the Art MoB? 

  I used Cricut's Doodlecharms cartridge, p. 87 for the mail box. Stamped a Rudolph stamp by Walmart
( gasp, lol  I admit it, I shop at Walmart ) on the flag and added a brad by Karen Foster. 

 

 

Next I cut out the envelope which holds the GC, again from Doodlecharms, p. 86 but removed the heart cut on the envelope in the Cricut Craft Room and extended the flap cut by hand so that I could slide the gift card up and under the flap. Stamped the Ho, Ho, Ho by Karen Foster on the flap and added a Martha Stewart poinsettia sticker on the corner to add some balance to the red flag. Outlined everything with a Faber Castell PITT pen.

 

Although the picture doesn't show it very well, it's actually a card, so the whole 'mailbox with GC' is the front of the card, leaving the person that sends it, a traditional inside to write their greetings.

 

 

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I have been asked how well sales have been going over at the Art MoB, and I have to say that I have been very lucky. The sales are definitely tourist driven so we had a couple of slow months during winter and I am still in the learning phase of what sells and trying to keep an open mind to what I can make that interests people.

 

So here is a recap of just the card sales:

 

September - 19 cards

October - 26 cards

November - 2 cards

December - 24 cards

January - 28 cards

February - 15 cards

 

A total of 114 cards sold in the first 6 months.

 ( female birthday seems to sell the best )

 

I try and keep 20 cards out at all times in each category, restocking once a week.

 

'basic cards' which stay up all the time consists of:

 

Birthday Female

Birthday Male

Thank you

 

then there are the 'fluctuating cards' which consist of:

 

current seasonal

upcoming seasonal

speciality cards

 

So, I have 6 displays with 20 cards in each display, that's 120 cards out for the customer's perusal.

It takes a lot of work to make sure I have a variety of cards but I do think that is important so that the customers have many things to choose from.

 

 I will consider myself successful if I help someone along the way from what I learn. Any questions? Feel free to ask. :) Any suggestions, feel free to offer. ;)

 

 

hallmark: noun

a mark put on an article to indicate origin, purity, or genuineness

or

 a distinguishing characteristic, trait, or feature

pronunciation

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WOYWW

and

adapting.

Yep, that's me these days and since a lot of you follow the ups and downs to my Art MoB, you will find me adapting to what sells and what doesn't sell. Remember the St. Patrick's Day cards I made? I wasn't even sure when I made them if they would sell or not ( mainly 'cause I don't send out St. Patrick's day cards )... well, they didn't sell. Not one single card. lol

On the bright side, I have 20 cards to try again with for next year!

 

If you want to know how the Christmas cards did, check in tomorrow and you'll find out. If you want to know what's on my desk today, it's a project that I have been working on for Tracy Weinzapfels March Creative Dare. I have been gluing on buttons today and finishing it up. On the shelf you can see a dog house, cow and carrot card that never got finished for one reason or another. Everything else is just a mess, I have been a very little busy bee crafting and my desk is showing it, let's not even discuss the floor beside me.

So let's nose around visit each other, gossip talk and have FUN!

plaudit: noun

an act or round of applause

or

 enthusiastic approval — usually used in plural

pronunciation
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Anything But a Card -  Challenge 15 Spring or Alice in Wonderland

OK, so Tracy went away for a week to play ....errr....work for a week while she was in Las Vegas. So, maybe I whinned a little too much because the girls from the Mixed Media Monday Nights group assigned....ASSIGNED me something to do...geez...bossy sweet friends! lol
Actually, I loved every minute of it and want to thank them for the push incentive to create this piece.

 They gave me a list of things to use:

Lori - butterfly....who started the whole idea!
Mary - gesso and bubble wrap
Jean - the color yellow
Anna - book text and she found the quote for me to use too!
 

 

OK, so I'm thinking this piece will work well for this ABAC challenge on a couple of levels. First, when I think of spring I think of butterflies. Here, I gessoed book text, inked it with Ranger's Dylusions and then ran it through the printer for the butterflies which I fussy cut out. I outlined the veins with my Faber Castell PITT pen in black. .

 I couldn't remove the yellow from the above picture,  but it does show how I gave one butterfly some dimension with my Helmar's Liquid Scrapdots. I really do love this stuff!! I also am in love with the Goosebumps spray that gave this ink such a wonderful dimension.

 

 I also think this piece fulfills some of the Alice in Wonderland criteria as it has watches embossed with modling paste using the Crafter's Workshop stencil TCW 201S. I spritzed some Imagine Goosebumps spray before spreading out the Ranger's Distress stains ( using water ). Wonderful effect, will be using this more!

Rabbit quotes on time from Alice in Wonderland:

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"
[singing] I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello, Goodbye". / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late."

 

Walrus quote

 “The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings” 
 

Then used my Distress Stains as splats. I hit them hard onto the board and it gives a wonderful ...splat!

 

My finished wall hanging:

Daler Rowney - gesso

Ranger - Distress Stains

Imagine - Goosebump spray

Crafters Workshop - stencil

Really Reasonable Ribbon - cording

Faber Castell - PITT pen

Helmar - Liquid Scrapdots

 

Thank you ladies, it's already hanging up in the Art MoB! 

katzenjammer: noun

 hangover

or

 distress

also

 a discordant clamor

 

pronunciation

Here's hoping that no one has a katzenjammer from too much St. Paddy's day fun!

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Frosted Design challenge is to make things that go up... clouds, birds, planes, kites, butterflies, etc on your project! This has so many fun possibilities, can't wait to see what you come up with!!

# 28in the 30 Mother's Day cards in 30 days challenge issued by the Art MoB!

 

Pink Paislee - blue paper

Echo Park - airplane paper, sticker airplane

Faber Castell - PITT pens

Our sponsor for this 2 week challenge is:

Creative Chaos


The prize this fortnight is an altered box filled with various handmade flowers to the value of $25.00!

behemoth: noun

something of monstrous size, power, or appearance

pronunciation

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Just a simple little card that I cut during Cricut Craft Rooms free digital cartridge, Spring Cards.

entering it into:

Die Cuttin Divas - Challenge #106 Green and Gold

Fantabulous Cricut - Challenge Me Monday, #152 Luck O' the Irish

 

Ranger - stickles
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I was inspired by the purple flowers, I have been hoarding this piece of paper for years...yeah...years. So I finally took it out and cut it...

#24 of 30 Mother's Day cards in 30 days challenge issued by the Art MoB
Print Blocks - pansy paper
Reminisce - white pen
Faber Castell - PITT pen
everything else is from my stash
Petunia Bounce - font
Ranger - stickles

Go here to join the play :)


Take the vocabulary quiz: see how you do

Vocabulary Quiz
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Ranger is having their seasonal palette contest again!!
 

  

Ranger products used:

 Distress Stain, mustard seed ( back ground )
stickles, baby blue,yellow,lime green,lavender ( butterfly )
Distress marker, broken china ( filled in the lettering )

To get the background, I dunked the crumpled paper into a wash of water and Sistress Stain, let it soak for a minute and then removed it, flattened it out ( gently ) and heat set it.

I had lots of fun playing around with the stickles in some different ways. I blended the yellow, baby blue and lime green in the large open part of the wing. I also outlined the lavender wings with baby blue while it was still wet by pushing in the baby blue next to the lavender.

#19 of 30 Mother's Day cards in 30 days challenge issued by the Art MoB
 

other product
DecoColor - glitter yellow, glitter violet
pearl - misc.
Chalk Line Outline - font
Cricut - Paper Trimmings cartridge, p. 36