Just what you...card

This is yet another of the cards I recently made with the faux mother of pearl technique. This one uses the Ranger Distress Ink in Wild Honey, a playing card of Anne Taintor and a rubber stamp by 100 Proof Press.

Until my next post,
Diane

She had done...card

Here's another card using a playing card by Anne Taintor. I used the faux mother of pearl technique with the Ranger dabber and the new Ranger Distress Chipped Sapphire ink a cutout from my Silhouette and a stamp by Crafty Secrets.

Until my next post,
Diane

Faux Marbling Technique Junkie Card

Here's a card I made using the Faux Marbling Technique from the Oct/Nov 2009 issue of Technique Junkies. I actually started with a paper that had a very subtle pattern by K&Co. I used Adirondak Inks to creat the look. The stamp is by Impression Obsession and the swirls were made with a Spellbinders die in my Cuttlebug.

Until my next post,
Diane

All I ask..card

Yet another of my cards using an Anne Taintor playing card and the faux mother of pearl technique. This time is is Ranger Distress Ink in the new Forest Moss color. The stamps are by Stamp Francisco and Lost Coast Designs. The lattice design was cut with my Silhouette SD.

Until my next post,
Diane

The five continent shoes get the boot - another foot story

I don't think I'm the only one that keeps certain items of clothing well beyond their time. The cozy sweater, the t-shirt from that once in a lifetime concert or the comfortable shoes.

I call these the five continent shoes because I've worn them in North America (many locations in USA and Canada and possibly Mexico), South America (Chile), Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Greece), Africa (Egypt) and Asia (Saudi Arabia, Turkey). If I had gone to Australia I'd have taken them there but not to Antarctica (just a bit too cold, boots would be a better choice).

I thought after I'd had my foot surgery these would be one of the shoes I'd gravitate back to since I used to be able to wear them all day and they sure were broken in. But alas, they just didn't work for me anymore so they got the boot so to speak and are possibly being worn by another or maybe the donation site took one look at them and said "you've got to be kidding me" and threw them out.

On a side note apparently there is some debate as to how many continents there really are. I'd always thought it was 7 but it varies between four and seven depending on how you look at it.

Until my next post,
Diane

Birds ATC

Here's an ATC I made for an Altered Designs TGIF ATC Mingle with the theme of Birds. I used a stamp by Artistic Outpost. First I stamped it on some marbled paper. Then I stamped the portion with the birds on glossy paper. I colored in the blue birds and cut them out and placed them on top of the original stamped ones. I added a note embellishment by SkyBluePink and a flourish I cut with my Silhouette.

Until my next post,
Diane

Happy Fathers Day

Here's the card I made for my Father-in-law for Dad's day. I started with a bubble wrap stamped background. I used Woodlawn a handmade Ranger Adirondak ink pad. The stamp of the man is by Tanda and the shoes and phrase are by Crafty Secrets.

Until my next post,
Diane

Eat Cake Card

Here's a card I made recently using Provo Craft Super Slab paper. I used an Inque stamp and a tag from JoAnns as an embellishment.

Until my next post,
Diane

Flower Vases Card

I sent this card recently with an ATC for a swap. I used K&Co paper, stamps by Posh and Studio G colored with Marvy watercolor markers and a border punch by EK Success. The big stamp is by Posh and it is a two part stamp. One is the outline which is in black and the other is the colored piece. The Studio G stamp is just a clear one piece stamp but I used the same markers with a watercolor effect.

Until my next post,
Diane

The relocation of Terrapene carolina carolina

The other day hubby and I were going for an after dinner walk. He mentioned something about a branch that had fallen and I was looking to see where it was and we saw a Terrapene carolina carolina a.k.a. Eastern Box Turtle s-l-o-w-l-y walking across the driveway near the garage door. I said "wait, let me run and get my camera" then realized what I'd said. I could have crawled and came back and wouldn't have seen the turtle in a different spot.

We decided a forced relocation might be in the best interest of all concerned so we put the little guy/gal into a shoe box and walked over to the nearby pond in our neighborhood and released it to the water.

We often see turtles in the pond or other ponds in the area. On warm days in the spring and fall they'll be grabbing a few rays of sun on exposed rocks and logs.

Until my next post,
Diane

You Rock Card

I wish I had thought this up but I didn't. I have to give credit to Corey Barker of Photoshop User magazine for providing this tutorial in the Apr/May 2010 issue. I'm part of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and get their magazine and all the other benefits that go along with membership. The magazine had the tutorial and this was just perfect for a nephew that plays guitar. Corey provided the images in the members only section and an extended video to add a few other bells and whistles to the printed tutorial. I did the tutorial then printed the document to fit a card. I added a blue frame that I punched with a Fiskars punch and added a portion of a sentiment that says "You Rock". Hope my nephew likes it.

Until my next post,
Diane

Get your kicks another biker guy card

Here's a birthday card I made for another biker guy. This one starts out using patterned paper from the Life's Journey by K&Co. Next I stamped two images from the Route 66 collection by Artistic Outpost and cut them out. That's it, easy-peasy and I'm done.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another simple birthday card

This easy card was made using a layout by Sheetload and K&Co papers. The Happy Birthday embellisment is by Crafty Secrets. I added a few rhinestones for an added touch.

Until my next post,
Diane

I do card

I have trouble making cards for certain events like weddings. I used the Graffitti technique from the December 2004 Technique Junkie newsletter. The wedding I'm attending is an afternoon wedding but not formal. I thought the card would look a little classier in a black and white style. I stamped (Just Rite stamps) a black piece of cardstock with words like: bride, groom, rings, vows and such using Brilliance inks in silver, gold and platinum. After that I used a Fiskars border punch on the top and bottom. I finished the card with a heart I cut out and stamped "I Do".

Until my next post,
Diane

The great toilet paper conspiracy

Earlier this spring I was replacing a roll of toilet paper and it seemed smaller. I mentioned it to my husband and he thought I was crazy. I happened to visit family and at my Mom's house there was some older paper that was purchased last year. I took the cardboard back home from a used roll and measured it to a newer roll and my suspisions were confirmed.

The newer roll on the right is about 1/4" smaller than the older roll. Granted they aren't the same manufacturer but the fact remains that the consumer is getting cheated.

Like all good reporters I checked my sources (not Wikipedia) and discovered Toilet Paper World...the blog
which had already leaked the story so I don't get the exclusive.

Just think if Elaine needed that one sheet in a current Seinfeld episode.... 

Until my next post,
Diane

Where did I go wrong...card

Yet another of my series of Anne Taintor like cards. I used another card from one of her playing cards on top of more faux mother of pearl using Ranger Dabbers and Tumbled Glass Ranger Distress Ink. The cut out is from my Silhouette and the stamp is by Crafty Secrets.

Until my next post,
Diane

One last tidbit about Art and Soul 2010

Because we all make "stuff" everyone at Art and Soul already has something in common. One of the great things about these retreats is that you meet folks from all over the place. Some are only a few blocks or short miles away and others are halfway across the country or in another country. This year I met cool ladies from Canada. They were in my class on day one but since we didn't go around the room and babble about ourselves in an introduction I didn't know they were some of our northern neighbors. On the last day one of them asked me to recommend some local places to go to buy art supplies since shipping and customs to Canada is expensive. I gave them some hints and that was that. They also took some of the Daniel Smith colored gessos that I donated to the class. I had bought way too much and syphoned off what I thought I'd use in a reasonable time and gave the rest away. Since then we've had a few email exchanges and I noticed Irene had an interesting widget on her blog so I checked out.

It turns out I'm a daffodil. The online quiz I took says "You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard." It's pretty much true although I'm more of a glass half empty than full person but I "try" to keep a good outlook on things.

If you'd like to check out Lennie's blog here it is. And last but not least here's Leslie's blog.

Until my next post,

Diane

Masculine ATC

Was it Peary or Cook that was the first to the North Pole? I'm not sure. I do have Cook's book but haven't read it yet but I have read a bunch of other books on North and South Pole adventures. My real polar hero is Ernest Shackleton; he'd be on my short list if I had to pick a few folks from the past to spend an evening with.

Anyway, the theme for a recent TGIF ATC at the Altered Arts Yahoo Group was masculine. I used a stamp advertising Peary's book by Tanda and another stamp by 100 Proof press on this ATC. I added a Tim Holtz embellishment with the word Courageous.

Regardless if he was the first to get to the North Pole or not the undertaking was courageous indeed.

Until my next post,
Diane

Paste Paper Extravaganza a.k.a. day five of Art & Soul Hampton 2010

This was a great way to end Art and Soul by making papers without and end project. It was the third class I took with Albie Smith. Since I'm local, I save a few bucks and go home every day after class rather than stay in the hotel. I'd get home and tell my husband that I was exhausted from playing and making art all day and he didn't get it. He didn't understand that quite often you are on your feet all day as you can't paint sitting down. He didn't get that the creative energy makes your head spin from trying new techniques and getting all these ideas of how to incorporate them into what you already do.

We started by working with just two tools a comb and a credit card.







I also made a print by decorating one piece and then put another piece of paper over it. It really is a print even though it doesn't look like it since I changed the original after I made the print.

These two are definately related. I didn't get a great print in the corner but I can alway go back and do something else to it.

These next two set are also related. And like the first print I went back and made some changes to the original.

These two have nothing in common. The one on the left I made right before lunch since I realized I had another piece of paper. I thought the one on the right was a print but I can't find the partner.

These I made after lunch as we moved into stencils, stamps and junk drawer stamping. This was the third class I had with Albie this year and I hadn't used any of her stencils yet since I had brought some of my own. The one on the left uses one of her stencils. I want to do some outlining on this one (probably with black) but ran out of time. Albie also had us think outside the box by incorporating not painting type tools to get a design. In the one on the right I used the top of a paint container that I dabbed with paint. I also used the end of a paint brush to make dabs and then swirled them with an old toothbrush.

The one on the right uses a stencil by Crafters Workshop (I think I need some of these stencils). I like how you can use different diameters to make your pattern whatever size and it all goes together. The one on the left started with yellow and the flower stencil since no one was using that color paint. You could barely see the flower stencil as I tried to wipe away the color underneath but it dried too fast. From there I kept adding a bit of green or blue to make darker greens. I added some foam stamps of leaves but at the end I knew it needed something else. I finished by adding the same flower stencil on top and added purple. It left the yellow where the stencil was and you can still see some of the green leaves. Thanks Albie for recommending the purple!

This one isn't mine. I was one of the last in the room as we were cleaning up and no one claimed it. I'm not sure if the owner forgot or didn't like it. If it is yours let me know and I'll send it to you if you send me the postage.

Until my next post,

Diane

The Episodic Journal a.k.a. day four Art & Soul Hampton 2010

Today I was back in another class with Albie Smith. The class was called the Episodic Journal.
She had her daughter Christine to assist. Christine has a good idea about color and design so it really helped to have two folks to turn to for questions.

We made paste papers in the morning and then assembled the book in the afternoon. We all finished our books (this is a sampling, some folks left early). The big reason why is we had our papers already trimmed to the proper size and the book board was cut as well. This way unless you happened to bring extra papers you had a fixed number of things to prepare. Also some of the papers didn't need to be decorated on both sides like the covers and end flaps, unless you didn't like your original design.

This was the second full day that Susan, Chrissie, Donna and I worked together. Chrissie and I also took the Paste Paper Extravaganza class which I'll blog about next.

I wanted to work with different colors and different design elements than the day before. I tried to stick to four colors: tan, red, black and blue. I did add a bit of gold on the cover but that was after the basic design was done. I stuck to the combs and graphic elements. I did overlay a dot stencil and one with diamonds. I also used the end of the brush as a simple/crude design element.

 We added beads on the outside of the faux spine. I say faux since it is only book cloth with some Tyvex as a reinforcement. The addition of the cording at the top and bottom is an illusion of sorts so you think there is a spine.

Until my next post,

Diane

Vintage Metal Deck a.k.a. day three of Art and Soul Hampton 2010

Todays class was making ATC's of metal with Leighanna Light. She evolved into her current Vintage Metal Deck style by starting with blank credit cards, gift cards or cards of similar size that you'd get in the mail. She then progressed to using old tin ceiling metal and is now having these ATC size flat metal cards cut since the ceiling tiles would be difficult to cut for a class of 15-20. She had a metal dapping block to give some dimension to our pieces. We were provided with 10 blank pieces of metal that we sanded, antiqued, and made patina. We added background papers collage images and eyelets, stamped with gesso and used a bunch of other techniques.

I got all of mine done with at least a background paper and an eyelet hole. Some have collage images and more detail. I have yet to add enough findings like Leighanna's and when I'm done I'll repost the before and add after photos.

Until my next post,
Diane

A Bevy of Books a.k.a. day two at Art & Soul Hampton 2010

Albie Smith makes some of the coolest paste papers I've seen. She works with different paints and colored gessos along with combing tools, stencils and stamps to create some beautiful papers. She takes these papers and makes them into books both soft sided and hardback. Albie didn't come to Hampton Art & Soul last year but this time I decided to take all three of her classes since I love paper. The papers I've displayed are the ones I have left over. I used a real summery/beachy pallette since I didn't want to fight over the paints that Albie brought. I figured if I dragged this stuff to class I might as well use it.

The Mirriam Webster definition of Bevy is a large collection. Having said that we made about a half a bevy but enough paste papers for 2-3 bevies (maybe more) for the Bevy of Book class. Time got away from us and we only finished 2-3 of these cool mini books in class. I spent part of Sunday evening with Chrissie and finished two more and then decided to call it an evening since I was making every mistake known to mankind with my sewing.

Until my next post,
Diane