Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Have you ever said "there must be a way to..."

Here I was thinking I'm really computer/internet savvy. Then I discovered blogs. Actually, I knew about them for a while but didn't understand why people would do them or read them. THEN I rediscovered my crafty side and realized this was a great way to view other peoples work and maybe get a free tutorial or two. I started with one, then two and like rabbits they bred. I said "there must be a way to make reading these things easier". What if someone didn't have inspiration the previous day, I don't need to watch reruns. Tthen I discovered Julie's blog. When I find a new blog I look at not just the current day but previous posts to see if it's something I want to read on a regular basis. Julie had this post the made my life OH so much easier. Again, I had heard about RSS but never took the time to investigate what it does for you. If you are a reader of blogs this is the sliced bread equivalent tutorial that you've been longing for. Thanks so much Julie and best wishes to you and yours this coming year. Keep your posts coming they are great!! I don't comment on a lot of blogs but I had to take the time to thank her for her inspiration and this tutorial. So what are you waiting for take a look!

Until my next post,
Diane

A fellow card maker (and photographer and jewelry maker) AND FRIEND

Faye is a friend of mine. We have quite a bit in common the first being why we met in the first place. We both volunteer at the West Avenue Library in Newport News, VA. We both obviously LOVE to read but we also read a lot of the same things and often recommend books to each other. It is our little bookstore with ever changing stock and we don't have to sink a dollar of our hard earned money into it. No rent, utilities, insurance...what a deal!

Faye is also a card maker. She makes jewelry to and is a great photographer. She's won at least one award at a local show and has sold some of her photos.

Visit her blog and etsy site to see her great creations.

Until my next post,
Diane

As promised...

As I mentioned yesterday, WHAT? you didn't read/see yesterdays post!? What is going on with everyone (besides the fact this blog is only a week old). Anyway, as I previously mentioned here are the instructions I promised on to how I achieved the bandana look on my ATCs that I swapped with Sid. I follow a bunch of blogs and I ran across this technique from Lori Roberts. Take any box with the weight/thickness of a cereal box and cut it to size. Use a coat of gesso on front and back (I do the back to keep the background sort of generic). I use a foam brush and rinse them out until they break/fall apart. I do them in bunches then let them dry overnight. Take Portfolio Oil Pastels and rub them over the gesso'd cardboard. You don't need full coverage. I generally use two colors and have found more success with them being in the same family (red/orange, light/dark blue, light/dark green). Rub them a bit with your finger or try using used dryer sheets to smoosh the colors together. The dryer sheets don't add any lint and were going in the garbage anyway. Add a small amount of Mat Medium (I use my finger and about 1/2tsp and NO I don't measure it!) and rub that over the colors. It blends the colors and fills in the blank spots. Let it dry overnight and you've got a great background. After that I stamp and embellish as desired. I've had my best success with either chalk inks or the Ranger archival ink. The Mat Medium makes the surface a bit slick so you could probably use Staz-On as well. After I stamped the ones displayed I used either the Inkssentials or Uni-ball Signo white pen to make the accents. They are both very good but this technique makes it a bit tough to write on so be patient.

Until my next post,
Diane

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

One year ago today Dec 30, 2007



Do you know where you were one year ago? I was in Egypt beginning our Nile River Cruise. The pace finally slowed down and we had a leisurely day. We went through the locks but before then we had mobile salesmen pitching (literally and figuratively) gallabeayas at the ship in hopes we'd buy them. Since the ship is waiting to go through the lock you might as well do something so you can view the outfits. Soon there will be room for two ships to go through at once and this might cut into the profits of the local floating businessmen. Yes I did say floating. These guys row out to your ship yell "Hallo" and then throw the gallabeayas your way. You look, dicker and if you don't get your price you throw it back. Once we made it through our visit of the day included a dusk tour of Edfu Temple. In the picture above I'm standing next to Horus the falcon god.
I belong to several Yahoo groups about cards, papercrafts and bookmaking. The first one I swapped with (and the ONLY one I swap with on a regular basis) is my favorite -- Stampers Corner. This is probably due to the Owner, List Mom Debi. She gives encouragement to all of us with our projects and could use a bit of encouragement herself right now as she is recovering from knee replacement surgery. She gave me some help when I was considering starting my blog so I'd like to give a little plug for the group and her blog.
The ATC I've attached was made for a swap we had last month with the theme of "Sand, Rust and Brown". I immediately thought of my Egypt stamps. The first layer is scrapbook cardstock. The second layer is handmade paper bought in bulk at Costco. I colored it with Fiber Scraps walnut ink. Next there is a layer of papyrus bought in Egypt of course. I found this great bookstore in Aswan at the unfinished obelisk and they had packages of papyrus in business card size -- perfect for cards and ATCs. The stamp is from Non Sequitur. The two small stamped images are from Limited Edition.
Until my next post,
Diane

A year ago yesterday


Do you know where you were a year ago yesterday? I do. I was in Egypt on a wonderful tour. We started in Cairo saw the pyramids, rode a camel and then took a short flight to Luxor to begin a river cruise. Before that we had a wonderful day visiting the Colossi of Memnon, the temple to Queen Hathsepsut, the Valley of the Kings, Karnak and Luxor Temples. I've always been fascinated with ancient Egypt and of course have some rubber stamps. This is one of the three ATC's I sent Sid this month. I stamped the image with Ranger archival ink. It is waterproof. I then took some Marvy Metallic Markers and put them on a non-stick craft sheet. I then used my water brush and painted in the blank areas. I used an image from a book to get the pattern colors right. My red is a big off though. The main stamp is from Non Sequitur and the small one is from Limited Edition. It was a bit toasty there in the Valley of the Kings but I kept my long sleeve shirt on to avoid a sunburn.

Until my next post,
Diane

My first online ATC trades













Remember the ATCs I posted yesterday? What? You don't, well take a look at yesterdays post to see them. Well anyway, as I mentioned in my first post...What? You didn't see that either?! Well anyway, I'm a private person (yea right you and every other person that has a blog) and finally decided this summer (July) to give it a go at doing some online trading. I ran across a blog from a guy in the UK that had posted some of his ATCs for trade. One thing led to another and Sid and I now trade on a monthly basis. We alternate picking a topic of the month (sometimes a technique, sometimes colors or other subjects) and we send out a group of three. I've had an advantage though since he has been posting his ATCs on the web I get to see them before they arrive. BUT it is still like Christmas every month since when they arrive I realize they are SO much better in person. The colors and shine is so much better in person. Here's the first group of three I sent him. For those of you not familiar this is the bandana technique. If you google it you'll find loads of links to many ways of doing this. I'll tell you how I did mine tomorrow....the suspense is mounting I can tell.

Monday, December 29, 2008

My first ATC's





These are the first ATCs I ever made, and it wasn't that long ago. I was going to be attending Art & Soul in Hampton, VA for a bunch of classes this past May. I had only gone to one class the previous year. Between year 1 and 2 I joined the Yahoo group and read that many folks participated in trades. I made these up using the technique that I learned in the first class with Zana Clark. I cheaped out on the supplies and didn't use her sprays (they are MUCH more vibrant than mine). The class was called Zia's Luna Art Quilt. There is a little colored pencil, crayon, masking, rubber stamping, bleaching, and of course the sprays. I made my background using a large sheet of watercolor paper and then cut it to size. I kept like colored pieces together and then stamped and decorated them. All of the stamps are from Stamping Ground (nice deeply etched rubber for a great price). Zana was a great teacher and I'd recommend taking a class from her if you get a chance.

Until my next post,

Diane

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Thank You cards






Here are two thank you cards I made a while back. I used Marvy Metallic Markers spritzed with water on the Ranger non-stick craft sheet. Glossy paper (from The Paper Cut) is then smushed into the colors. The stamps is from Inkadinkado. I outlined the edge of the stamped image with a Deco color gold marker and then mounted it onto a piece of handmade paper I got in a sack from AC Moore. That was then mounted to a piece of paper from the Old World stack by DCWV and added to a blank ivory card. Unsure where the ribbon came from.


This second card has more of the gold than the other colors since I didn't add more color. There are a few blank spots but I like the look, it makes it look a little antique.
Until my next post,
Diane

Saturday, December 27, 2008

First Post

I've been thinking about starting a Blog for a while and kept putting it off. I'm computer savvy so this shouldn't intimidate me.

One big reason I haven't started a Blog is that I'm a private person and am often a lurker on many of the Yahoo crafting groups I'm a member of. I don't make regular posts about what I'm doing. If someone has a question I can answer I'll do that---sometimes. On occasion, I've posted a creation or two. I even dragged my feet about participating in some swaps but now do a few on a regular basis.

The other reason I hadn't started a Blog is that I don't want it to eat up my time. For that reason my posts will likely be limited to a photo of my creation and the products used to create it.

So, if you are looking for videos, how-to's, tutorials, recipe's and that sort of thing you should look elsewhere. If you want political, religious or other social commentaries definitely look elsewhere. BUT, if you want to see someone else's creations and short blurbs about the products they used then this might be what you are looking for. On occasion you might see a photo of my cat since he's my buddy.

I'm sure I'll pretty some of this stuff up as time goes on but for now I've got a simple interface with a simple background and no fancy digital signature.

Later...happy crafting to all of you in cyberland,

Diane