Borborygmus: noun

intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas

( well, this is one for the books!, lol )

pronunciation

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This is my first time entering a challenge for My Sweet Earth, a blog run by Susan K. Weckesser.

August Create to Live Challenge

using this for your inspiration:

The sweet ripe taste of ...apples. 

Up here in the mountains we are known for our crisp variety of apples so I was inspired to paint some apples...well, one apple anyway. We will be having an apple festival the last week in August so I wanted to have something apple related for sale in the Art MoB.

 I also wanted an apple related verse by Robert Schuller so I chose:

"Anyone can count the seeds in the apple but only God can count the number of apples in a seed."

My background is a combination of paints and stains, with the embossed lettering for added texture. Then the apple branch was painted on with acrylics and stains with an outlining of pearl paint.

Ranger - distress stains, barn door, vintage photo, peeled paint, brushed pewter

Viva Décor - pearl pen, dark brown

Plaid - acrylic paint, nutmeg brown

Apple Barrel - acrylic paint, Kelly green, khaki, yellow flame, white

Delta Creamcoat - bright red

Crafters Workshop - stencil, TCW261



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side note:
One of my little art canvas was used for advertisement in the Laurel Magazine for the Art MoB! :)

 You can see it here.
If you do go to the link to see it, mind giving me a like?
Thank you!~

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Simon Says - Monochromatic
Aud Sentiments - #87 Anything but a birthday card
Inkspirational - #33


what? 2 cards in the same week that are monochromatic? What is becoming of me?

I've really been trying ( honest, I have ) to use up my stash items, you know those things we hold onto for years and for whatever reason they don't get used but there they are, secretly mocking you...oh wait, I might be the only one who has stash that mocks them, lol Anyhoo....I have had these animal sticker letters since 2006 ( hangs head down in shame ) and when I saw the Inkspirational challenge, I just knew I could use them, with the letters of the inspiration piece inspiring me.

evolution: noun

 a process of change in a certain direction

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Hi everyone!

 I am so excited to be a new Design Team member for Try it on Tuesday!!

All their challenges are considered a "anything goes" medium, which I LOVE that freedom to create anything I want!

 

This week we are sponsored by:

They are offering 4 digi stamps from their store so go and play along with us!

 

 

This challenge is called "Let's Get Inky"...couldn't be any better than that, huh? It did get me to thinking about my progressions with ink, In the beginning I used it for stamping only, then I began inking the edges to my mats, which lead to inking embellishments....and then somewhere along the way I began inking everything when I discovered sprays and stains!

Can you remember your ink evolution?

 

So, for this project, I took my Ranger  Distress Inks: Salty Ocean and Broken China and just went straight from the pad smooshing ( technical term ) them across the background. Then spritzed with water and used bubble wrap ( a highly developed tool ) to blend them together.

 

 While my ink back ground was drying I created my chocolate covered earth. ( I think the world would be a better place if it was covered in chocolate, don't you agree? ) The earth was clip art found on the computer, cut out and then painted over with Apple Barrel: Colbalt Blue and Delta Creamcoat: Forest Green acrylic paint. Then I free hand cut a piece of white paper for the chocolate glaze and sprayed it with Ranger Dylusions: Melted Chocolate spray ink. After it dried I covered it with Glossy Accents. ( the tiny bubbles REALLY show up in the close up picture. )

The heart is a Tim Holtz Idealogy grunge board piece that is covered with Distress Stain: Barn Door and I used a Pink Paislee rub on ( the white blotches ) adding with my Faber Castell Pitt Pen the word LOVE. To finish off my wall hanging I used the Distress Stain: Faded Jeans around the edges, doodled a little with the American Crafts Marvy marker in white. Wood beads and twine round off the piece so it can be hung.

So all in all I used 6 different colored inks on my 6 x 12" wall hanging. I can't wait to see what you make for this challenge, after all I know a lot of inky ladies out there ;)

So go join in for some inky fun, the prize for the month of December is from:

Naughty: adjective

 

guilty of disobedience or misbehavior

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 So far in our Handmaking for the Holidays we have had 2 stops along the way:

 Chrissy from Muse in the Morning provided us with a bunch of hand made ornaments tutorials and  Heather from  Feather's Flights has an adorable Biased Apron to whip up for that home maker in your life! ( makes me wish I could sew, heck, makes me wishes I were a 1950's homemaker, too!!! lol...ok, kinda sorta on that one! ) Next up,on Wednesday will be Melissa from Love Bug Living...I can't wait to see what she has come up for us for the Holiday create-a-thon!
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Meanwhile, in the hills of North Carolina I am still creating Christmas cards for the Art MoB store, I am hoping that December will be a busy month for us! ( November kinda stunk, it was VERY slow until after Thanksgiving and then picked back up some.) But I am loving this card, I think I have saved Santa a trip MANY times over the years!

 First I outlined him in my waterproof Faber Castell Pitt Pen, then applied Art Grip Aquarelles to color in the flesh tone, using my water brush to smooth them out. The suit was painted in with Delta CeramCoat acrylic paint, the belt and shoes filled in with my Sakura Glaze pen, the fur trim is Ranger's Frosted Lace stickles and the beard is a layer of Aleene's Tacky Glue followed up with Plaid's Soft Flock fibers. The Naughty or Nice writing is done with my Ranger Distress marker in Antique Linen.

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Did you get a lot of your shopping done? Are you decorating? I didn't do any shopping and the decorating seems to be over whelming this year!! lol Oh me, oh my!.....errrrr.....Ho, Ho, Ho!

entering this card into:

 

Pause Dream Enjoy - #47 Anything Goes
 

 

 

eclectic: adjective

selecting or choosing from various sources

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I fell in love with the saying.....

 that was the easy part. This one was a struggle for me.

 

First I had hand stitched around the vellum and then I had hand lettered the sentiment

and. messed. up.

 It was not even.

 

 So I tore away the inside of the vellum, leaving the outside stitching in place. Filled the void in with black paint, then using Ranger's Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, I stamped a paisley design and embossed it. Placed an "eclectic" mix of lettering on top of that and then coated it with Delta Creamcoat Gloss Enamel. ( to make sure they stickers stay stuck! )

 

I recycled the moon from a box of Moon Pies, lol. Popped it and the stars up with some Helmars Liquid Scrap dots. Doodled on the moon with my Faber Castell Pitt Pens and used Ranger's stickles to decorate the moon and the stars. The stars were cut from Cricut's Doodlecharms cartridge.

I lined the edge where the vellum meets the paint with white yarn ( with Aleene's Tacky Glue ) and then covered the yarn with Ranger's stickles, just LOVE the look of that. Will have to use it again, looks like foam and still feels soft....well actually kinda crunchy soft, if there is such a thing!

entering this in:

 

Anything But a Card Challenge 5, to incorporate black into your project
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Weather update:

This is day 3 of continuing wind....

Hurricane Sandy is still giving us sustained winds of 16 mph with gusts up to 38 mph. It's constant with no relief. Luckily last night we only had one power flicker, but flashlights have been pulled out and placed in strategic areas. I am lucky that my balcony faces the south direction so I haven't had to pull anything major from it. Clematis's bungee cord is secured and my big fern is not on it's usual hanger, but that's all I've had to do. We won't have ANY leaves left on the trees by Wednesday; it's cold....wondering if we will get any snow?



hooked: adjective ( slang )

 Captivated by or devoted to a custom or thing

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I love color, it's no lie, so when I saw the Helmar Monthly October Color challenge I was hooked. I also LOVED the picture of the flower that was the color inspiration too...double hooked! I actually didn't even want to alter the picture, if I had water droplets, I would have added those too!

Here is mine, I did a hanging canvas for my Art MoB studio. You can see all my wall hangings if you click on the tab at the top of my screen that says Wall Hangings for the Art MoB.

 

 

And if you want to see the progression of how I made it, here is a slide show. I really fought the background as you will see, in the end, it's black, just like the color inspiration. I just couldn't get that color combination out of my head. I told you I liked the picture! lol I used my Helmars Gemstone Adhesive for all the colored gems.

 

 

Products in order of use:

( opinion of products are purely my own )

 

Daler Rowney Gesso ( applied with an advertisement credit card, who says junk mail is all bad ?)

Atlas page maps ( really wasted this, since you can't see them in the end )

Art Word stencil ( another waste in the end )

Lil Davis Designs - Mint Glitter Glaze

Glimmer Mists ( Popsicle ,Peach Delight, and Candy Apple red )

water mist

Patio Paint - Petunia, Fern Green

Apple Barrel - Black Gloss, Pumpkin Orange

Delta Ceramcoat - Bright Red

blotted with wax paper

Faber Castell - Metallic Gelato ( used dry and rubbed with my finger to smooth it out )

Allene's Tacky Glue ( give it a moment to set up before adding twine )

Twine ( colored with the Galaxy marker )

American Crafts Galaxy Marker - ( LOVE this white marker! )

Reminisce Black pen

Me & My Big Ideas - colored gems

Studio 18 - gem

Helmars Gemstone Adhesive ( awesome stuff, especially since I am clumsy and kept smearing glue on my gems, but you can never tell once it's dried!!!! )

Reminisce sticker letter ( had to use glue under the letters to get them to stick to the gloss paint )

Pitt Pens - Black

White Reminisce pen

swirl - Don Juan cartridge

beads - misc.

fickel: noun

 describes persons or things that are not firm or steady in affection, behavior, opinion, or loyalty

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My favorite?...why the one I am currently working on, of course. At least that's the way I feel when working on any project. This one is no different, although some things have to grow on you a bit in order to become a favorite, take this tag for instance.It started off in a normal fashion, cutting the tag base and embossing it. I did get to use one of my new embossing folders which is just beautiful. I then used regular paint to cover the raised areas using my blending tool as Timmy advised. Then followed up with the 2 brown inks.

Cricut - tag- Don Juan cartridge ( 6" )

embossing folder- Sheena, heavy swirls

paint - Delta, Forest Green

Ranger - Distress inks- Antique Linen

Ranger's - Distress Ink ( reinker )- Brushed Corduroy

I really was not looking forward to making any flowers. As a rule, I don't like making them at all, and I have 2 cartridges just for flower making. You can imagine my disappointment when I learned that I stunk at flower making. :( Hoping that TH could change my flower making; I dutifully watched the the video, wishing it would spur on that moment of flower creativity and I admit I was intrigued about using the toothpick to base the flower's structure on. I still may not be a superb flower maker but the process was enjoyable anyway, and I will use this trick again, although I do confess that when I made my first one, I had to laugh because I thought.."oh,look, a tiny cute pink pine cone.."

flowers - Cricut - Flower Shoppe cartridge ( 3", 2.5", and 2" )
branches - French Manor cartridge ( 3" )

Ranger's - Distress inks - Worn Lipstick, Mowed Lawn
Tattered Angels - glimmer mist, Pearl

I altered the sentiment because I thought this one went better with my butterfly, and I made the butterfly dimensional along with the saying. I didn't have a frame stamp ( that wouldn't involve masking ) so I cut out my frame on the Cricut using a 2 sided tape applied to the card stock before I cut the image so that I could still emboss it easily. I also probably ruined the flowers by adding the inside color with alcohol inks, but lesson learned as they ended up being so bright.

butterfly stamp - Hero Arts

Cricut - frame - Happy Hauntings cartridge

sentiment - Karen Foster

Tim Holtz - alcohol inks - Watermelon, Citrus, and Sailboat Blue
embossing powder - American Crafts

I did substitute the pearls with a clear and black crystal, the pearls just looked too white. I also used a green ribbon because I think it balanced the color of the tag well.

crystals - old necklace from stash

key charm - Cousin

ribbon - stash

Tim Holtz August Tag

Pan Pastels - Challenge 30 - Summer Fun

Really Reasonable Ribbon - #53 - Bling and Ribbon

Divas by design - Challenge 46 - Flowers

So I learned a few things, not to drop bright colors inside a muted toned flower! along with a new technique for making flowers. It's still my favorite, but then I am a fickle crafter and I know my next favorite is always right around the corner! ;)

And in my continuing endeavor to increase my TH stash I made my monthly purchase:

 And my goodies that Sheena sent me..because I was... and I am quoting her:  "being my first non UK commenter" ...lol..That was such a treat and I love her products too. I am looking forward to playing with all this treasure as soon as I can! She was very generous! :)