Now I know how it feels!

I am so excited! Not only did I receive my first piece of art mail, which is so CUTE but I also got a personal watercolor card designed just for me! My friend painted my little guinea pig Daisy Mae and she just made me smile from ear to ear!! It really does make your heart go pitter patter from the moment you get your mail out of the box and thumb through the bills to see something like this! Snail mail art really does make you feel special!

This is the card I am pulling out of my stash to create an envelope for today. I love that I used my hand made paper to stamp the sun, tree and bird on, it's a wonderful texture. I love making my own handmade paper with my Arnold Grummer Paper Making kits. The stamps are by Susan K. Weckesser and so is the background paper.

Here they are together as a set, hope it makes someone smile like I did today when I got my card from Jean!

Don't forget to send in your snail mail art for the show.

stamps, gel prints and doodles...oh my!

Look at this background on the envelope art. Wowzers, thats really cool and a bit scary! LOVE my 5x7" Gel Press® plate and distress paints, I think I've said this a couple hundred times now but I am in serious infatuation with this combination!

And then there is the cartoonist in me ( that's what I wanted to become when I grew up, not a doctor, or an astronaut...a cartoonist! ) so I get my fix by drawing fun characters instead: using PITT pens, Paper Craft crayons, and Tombow markers. 

...or by adding small doodle people and stuff along with stamps like I did here with the Tumbleweed house stamp set.

The gnome and Edgar Degas

I really enjoy creating my own sentiments on the computer, if you haven't tried this yet I would recommend doing so. It's a great way to really express your own personality. Plus there are so many different fonts out there it can become addicting to collect them as well.

And yes, I do love puns, I find them to be quirky :), kinda like me.

And there is no better appeal than the background made from a Gel Press® print. It creates depth and interest in a snap, plus they are just so much fun to make. I like to keep lots of prints on hand just to have a stock of papers to choose from when I make cards.

I dressed up this little gnome from the What's Up Gnomey? stamp set with some tiny pom pom ribbon. 

Altering stamps is another thing I like to do. I used a mask to block out the flower he was holding, made my own little paint brush and cut it out and then stuck it in his hand. This really helps tie in the image to the wording.

Here's to great things in your future!

Simon Says: Anything Goes

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!

These shades, they say, were chosen to convey rosy warmth and tranquility. 

entering this in:

Unity's {be inspired} challenge for Dec.

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

Susan K. Weckesser Christmas Love Campaign

also
Simon Wednesday Challenge - Let it Snow

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

Also entering this in {my sweet earth} Christmas Love Campaign

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 :)

CardMaker Magazine p. 20

I had gotten away from submitting cards for publication when Cricut and Paper Crafts magazine went to ezines...I prefer to have a magazine that I can hold in my hands...prefer my books that way too.

Just my opinion.

So, anyway....here I am, again, now submitting to the CardMaker.

 Featuring my Design Teams

Arnold Grummer Paper Making

Helmar Worldwide Adhesives

Susan K. Weckesser stamps

#LOVEYAWHOLEBUNCHES blingy gift box

I made the most scrumptious gift box with The Buckle Boutique self-adhesive rhinestone sheets! 

First I traced the box onto the back of the Dazzling Diamond adhesive sheet and cut it out with my scissors. Then I painted the inside of the box with DecoArt's Americana Multi-Surface Paint, and yes...I should have done this step first because I also discovered a small area along the bottom of the box that had the sheet pressed right up to it and knew I couldn't paint that edge without messing it up, so I used my Faber Castell PITT pen to color it in. I also used a Sharpie to outline the edges and smudge them to really make the box pop.

Now I get to embellish the top of the box! I added a flower and a sentiment using my favorite glues, Helmar! They make adhering products to the rhinestone sheets a snap!

The sentiment stamp come from Susan K. Weckesser-Jillian Vance design called Love Ya Whole Bunches.

I decided it needed something on the inside cover so I decoupaged a magazine image cut into a heart shape using Earth Safe Finishes Decoupage.

I just love how my little blingy box turned out!

They are so easy to use and so much fun if you want to give them a whirl they have some Sample Packs that you can try out. 

Gnomes and Fairies

I'm really not sure what is more intoxicating...playing with shrink film or maybe it's making things to put in my fairy garden....or maybe...it's BOTH! lol See what I added to my Creek Fairy house today over on the {mysweet earth} blog. ( warning: cuteness overload! )

Do you have a fairy garden? If you do and have pictures of it I would love to see it. Maybe we should have a fairy garden link up party?? That would be fun!

Birthday Blessings

Recently I joined The Awesome Ladies over at Rukristin. They have a monthly challenge and I thought I'd join in...Join up, it's free!

I really like layering stamped images that I cut out.

A closer look at the tiny sequin hearts.

Fly Away stamp set
Live in Color paper

I'm also entering this card in:
Word Art Wednesday #172 Anything Goes

Glittery colors are the best

House of Cards  - week one - glittery color challenge

I love glitter and I love these colors so how could I not play along? I haven't visited House of Cards in ages, so I am long over due for some great challenges! I made a snowman birthday card using some of the suggested colors and of course the glitter.

  

The snowman stamp ( one of a kind winter ) is stamped onto some handmade paper using my Arnold Grummer paper mill kit and then cut out. I added some Ranger's stickles to the snow and some Sakura glitter pen to the ends of his scarf, plus I just had to add some rhinestones to the snowflakes!

Thank you card

This winter I won't mind staying indoors because I will have my Arnold Grummer's Paper Making Kit to play with. You may think it sounds a bit crazy, but trust me on this one....recycling paper is addicting! On this card I used some scraps of metallic wrapping paper, and all I can say is.....oooooooh...aaaaaaaahhhhh....lol

seriously

All my paper ( except for the base card stock ) was hand made and oh does it sparkle! I just love the teeny tiny gold flecks and the feel of the paper.

house stamp - Susan K. Weckesser Tumbleweed Houses

( all other stamps are old and discontinued )

entering my Thank you card in

Simon Wednesday challenge - Winter Inspiration

Gnomey in disguise

Playing along with the Unity {be inspired} Challenge and I chose the color portion of the challenge. Love Halloween colors and it's right around the corner too...eeks!

I love my What's Up Gnomey stamps and just can't get enough of this cute little guy! I mean, seriously, he is adorable!

So I dressed him up for Halloween!

I also used the sentiment "smile" from the Insta-Cute stamp set.

Don't forget, we have an awesome contest going over on the {my sweet earth} blog. Real easy to play along!

Color separation

A traditional photographic process of separating artwork into component films of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black in preparation for printing to ultimately create a full-color printed product. Recent computer innovations have obviated the need for separated film negatives in certain applications.

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I just LOVE this house stamp by Susan K. Weckesser called Heartfelt Warmth and just about use it on everything, seriously, it's that cute!!

I used the same ink that I stamped with to "re-color" the flower as the original blue did not match. The design on the house came from the Grandma's Needlepoint stamp and instead of using an acrylic block I just held it in with my fingers so I could press the end of the stitches onto the house instead of drawing bricks or something like that.

I love the embossed ink and the tiny sentiment which I printed out, then cut out, inked the sides and doodled along the edges before gluing them down. The striped twine just adds a little more whimsy to the tag.

entering my house stamp tag into:

Simon Monday Challenge - Big Stamp

Color permanence

Refers to a pigment’s lasting power. Tubes and other containers of paint are sometimes labeled with a code indicating a color’s degree of permanence.

Letter code	Degree of color permanence
AA	Highest
A	Standard
C	Less than permanent, though fairly durable
C	Fugitive

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I don't even remember making the background on this art journal page, it was so long ago, but it sat in my art journal hoping to become a page one day. Frankly I wasn't sure that day was actually going to come at all...it sat, and it sat. I would flip through my journal and run across this page and shrug and move on....until today.

I had a couple of small scraps leftover from Susan K. Weckesser's Beautiful Daydreams and just couldn't throw them away either. ( A pattern is emerging, I don't throw things away very well, lol ) So, I fussy cut them out, pop dotted and doodled on them... and they seem to fit well on the abandoned page.

I also had some fabulous stamps like this one from Grandma's needle point and I thought she would be perfect for holding the kite, so I stamped her on flesh colored paper and then colored her in with some PITT pens.

I also have this very old stencil that just looks like a gust of wind blowing and it fit so perfectly with my theme using my Sakura pens to draw it in.

And for our lettering homework from The Art of Whimsical Lettering, I used p. 80, the Wonky Printing to complete my mantra. Joanne's book is full of great lettering ideas and definitely worth buying plus you get to play along with us and see everyone's wonderful lettering journals over on the FB page!

I am off working on my bear, the deadline is approaching!!