Prompt: Wacky

This past weekend at our smashing Smash* crop

Holly gave us a prompt for the evening... it was Wacky...

I had literally smashed the background of this page prior, using my new 

Acrylic Dabbers using this technique and had added the Starburst wrappers 

thinking I would do a candy page!

But the colors just screamed WACKY

and so I went to work... Hoping that my toils would win me a small smash* book prize

The pics I happened to have taken with my Ipad on our recent Grand Canyon

trip with mom and dad... they are in "infrared"

I had stamped and painted the kites earlier in the day

using of course my ranger distress inks after stamping and embossing the outline I 

used my paintbrush with a little water and the ink I filled 

in the kites... it gives a cool water color effect

Next I added some of my smash* pad top 10 notecards

I added the washi, made some "Wacky" "Color" tags

Voila! While I don't think it won me a new smash* book (I left before the drawing,) 

it was very satisfying to finish a page

and to use the funky pictures that I thought would never make it into any

book! 

Do you have that funky picture that you don't think will fit anywhere??  Are you bold enough

to just go for it??

Coffee makes the world go round... or at least mine!

Coffee...

Oh sweet coffee!!! 

I do literally think it makes my morning brighter, 

and is the cure all for any headache!

I'm not a huge fan of regular Starbucks coffee,

but when I heard their Fraps would be only $2 over Memorial Day weekend

I knew I'd be there... (to clarify, they were only at the Starbucks inside the Safeway stores!)

Friday I mozied on over to my local Safeway and ordered up a nice cold 

Cookie Crumble Frap!

MMMMMMM sweet goodness... 

I spied these little cards on the counter, and picked up a comment card to boot...

Perfect for some smashing

Then the next morning I finished off a can of White Chocolate Carmel Latte 

Creamer.. so I ripped the wrapper off that bad boy 

hit it with a little heat gun, and voila... perfect for smashing...

Finally, my favorite piece of the smashing puzzle...

This little tag.. the coffee ring is made with real coffee, out of a real coffee cup! 

Super easy, just splash it over the edge, like what happens when your cat jumps up and the coffee sloshes 

over the edge.  Let it dry, stamp a little saying in the middle, add a rusty washer and some twine (from the twinery of course) 

And you've got yourself a smoking hot (and great smelling) smash* page.

FYI, I modge podge'd a napkin to the page as the background. 

What gets you up and going in the morning? How many cups does it take??

Inspiration Monday

Sweet and simple... No, just SWEET!! Today's inspiration is...... 

Desert for my work Memorial Day Potluck... Find the yummy recipe for these s'mores cookies here...

 and check out a great blog at the same time!

This recipes was super easy.. 

And the cinnamon totally makes it soooooo mmmmmmmm 

get me a glass of milk.

Go cook something.. it's not always about ink and paper! 

Where'd this come from?

This is what happens when you leave your supplies out

and your scrappin buddies come along and make you a smash* page

Last night I went to my very first smash "crop"

I nervously packed up a bunch of supplies, and wondered what to expect.

I had been working on some of the pieces of this page all day... Especially the "ROXY" sign

Which is was all hand made, and the ribbons and lace and washi were added by the girls

during the crop hop.

The washi flags on twine were a hit, and I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of those

in the girls work over the next few weeks! 

And they're super duper easy to make!

As a last minute addition to my supplies I pulled out the tag... I didn't know it if

would get used, but it's just perfect with the additional "dog"

bling! 

This page just screams Roxy... She's a bold fun princess...

Who we learned doesn't really love the outdoors as much as we thought she

would, and always sleeps at my feet to "protect" me.

Thanks girls for the wonderful page!

The best part about the crop (other than the company of course)

is that I have lots of pages to share with you this week! 

Come on back tomorrow for inspiration monday! 

Smash* Challenge #1

This weekend I am participating in the Three 24 hour smash* aholics challenge.  It's 3 challenges for 

each of the three days of the weekend.

The first challenge was to make a page about someone or something special..

So I flipped thru my pictures and this one stood out t me...

It's of my parents from their last visit.  And in honor of my mom finally starting to follow this blog I thought 

I'd include her!!

Some close ups of the details... The pretty butterfly with Ranger acrylic paints, and home made 

glitter spray (I used an old container of eyeshadow)

The little glassine envelope was left over from my wedding, and I added a little bit of twine

At the top of the pic is the xoxo glittery ribbon, some coups I got at a raffle a while back..

The king and queen are from the cover of a book of stamps, and I made the mom and 

dad sign from scratch...

It's a cute little page, and much more smash* like than I usually do!  I hope you enjoy!

A Summer Bookmark

I Love Bingo!!!

Hubby thinks I should actually be about 65 years old....

But I Love Bingo!!!!

So when I saw the Bingo 2 Week challenge over at shoppingourstash I KNEW I was going to participate!

Of course I also love saturated canary's challenge, so for my first combo challenge, I did this little beauty

For SC the challenge this week is bookmark, 

it's perfect for that summer book I'll be picking up soon!

For the Bingo challenge I had to incorporate glitter, pearls, distressing, blue, and flower...

I love the glitter in her hair... feels like she got some sand stuck in her locks

I also got a chance to use my new denami stamps that you may remember I won in a blog hop last weekend.. That's the little butterfly, embossed and painted with pearl watercolors!
I also incorporated some of the twine I got in that same win from the twinery to the ribbon's at the top of the bookmark..

The pearls and flower I tied together in my handmade flower which is also blue

There is some distressing on the edges of the bookmark, and I also used ranger distress inks and a little punchinella on the side of the bookmark. 

I hope you love my summer bookmark!  

What is your favorite book??  How would you make a bookmark for it? 

Flowers??? How thoughtful

Sometimes I find myself wandering around those big box stores admiring the pretty "spare parts" 

the wonderful flowers that look flawless.....

I pick them up and do my best to try to figure out how they were made....

I of course picture a big factory where these flowers are churned out by the thousands... 

I CAN do it! 

So I decided to try.... 

1. Pick out your fabric.... Satin seems to work best but you can use any kind you want.

2. Cut circles from your fabric.  These can be as big or small as you would like, but you want them to get progressively smaller.

3. Light your candle.

4. Burn just the edges of the fabric.  If you're using satin you will notice how the edges start to curl up.

5. Layer your burnt circles with the largest on the bottom.  There are many ways to finish off the flower.  You can glue the circles together, you can sew them, you could punch a hole in them and use a brad to hold them all together.

Voila!  You have a beautiful hand made flower to add to your art project! 

I like to make them while sitting on my couch watching my favorite show... then they are all ready to go when you start a new project!

Inspiration Monday

I hope to bring you some inspiration for your art...

Hope to make this a weekly blog post

Today is simple

A Fire Hydrant outside my local Joann's 

Inspiration can come from the color, or the landscape, or even the bolts...

Draw, paint, journal or smash* something

Just create

When it gets hot in the desert

It's Summer....

Maybe not where you are... 

But here in the "Valley of the Sun" 

It's Summer....

Today it will be 105

I'm not kidding

Last week it was 106...

See I'm not kidding, and it was only 2:39 in the afternoon.. it got up to 108...

What's a girl to do??

This is what

What do you do when you know it's finally summer?

Do you jump in the pool?

Do you hide in your house with the shades closed??

Turn it into art... Draw it, paint it, Smash* it!  Enjoy your summer...
P.S. May 23rd is Slurp-free day... that's right... go to 7-11 and get your free slurpee... from 11 am - 7 pm... And no, I don't get paid to give them advertizing... I just LOVE a Slurpee!!  And anything free.. ha
 

Altered Composition Book

This week I have been hard at work altering a composition book 

for a swap with the sensational scrappers of the west valley.  If you're in the Phoenix area look us up!!

It's a great bunch of crafters!

If you remember I had questioned what vintage was here.  Well, this is my answer.

So on to the eye candy...

Altered Composition book

The directions said to add at least 3 things to the cover... I think I did that and more just on the "vintage" section....

Scrabble letter embellishments

Love the twine!!  Can't wait for my box of goodies coming soon.. filled with twine for sure from the twinery.

Handmade "burn" flower

This beauty I made all from hand... Hopefully a tutorial will be coming soon! 

A super easy project you can do while watching tv even!

Handmade Envelope

The inside cover had a handmade "pocket" 

The directions also said that inside at least 25 pages should have some kind of "embellishment"

This sweet page has a simple sentiment.

I hope you love this book!  Feel free to email me if you have any questions about how I did any of the work...

What would you do

I'm a winner!

Yep!

That's right, I'm a winner!  

This past weekend I followed a blog hop (find it here)

I got to be inspired by all the wonderful blogs out there!

Tonight after a little bit of craft shopping I came home to watch a tutorial on how to use my new Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers....

I then remembered the blog hop I entered and figured I might as well check to see if I could possibly be the winner.... 

And there on the winners page was my face smiling back at me!!!  I couldn't believe it!!!  No seriously, I couldn't believe it!!!  I NEVER win anything!!!!

This is a preview of the prize pack... 

I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet!!  I was literally just planning a trip back to the bakery to get some more bakers twine....

Well and for the canolli too! 

Stay tuned for how I use this great prize!!!

Busy... Busy... Busy...

Hey everyone out there in blogland!

I know I have been MIA for the last few days..

I was house/dog sitting for my mother in law, plus working 12 hours shifts

means I haven't been able to post.

I know, it makes me sad too!

However I'm putting a little teaser out there..

Tonight is my art group, it's Holly's Make and Take

She is a super talented and creative lady, and a blogger too!! 

You can find her site here.

I hope to have a post about that fun group meet up tomorrow,

Today I'll leave you with this pic of my work girls!

It's game 2 of the coyote's playoffs

We work for the city where they are located, and it's fun to support the local teams! 

I made the shirts... Just a quick iron on!

Tomorrow starts my weekend, so I'll have lots of blog love the next couple of days...

As they say in Dear John,

 I'll See ya soon then..

Saturday finds

About two months ago I stopped working the graveyard shift, and now have to be up at 4:30

in the morning 3 -4 days a week.  

However I'm off on Saturdays! 

So at 6 am I get up, make a cup of coffee, and head out to see what I can find to use in my art!

Today I ventured up to a 55+ community and ran into a couple of estate sales.

Sometimes they creep me out.. but I'm in search of maps, and vintage metal findings,

books, ect...

Today was a bit of a treasure trove!

Maps, pictures, a copy of "Little Women" with a signature and date of 1949. 

The pictures are all old black and whites, 

 

 

 

and there are actually about 5x's the amount of 

postage stamps as you see...

The maps are from Germany, and most dated in the 80's

There was also this little hand held scorecard for Bridge

All are enough to get the creative juices flowing...

The bonus is that the stamps I found have some value... I paid 50 cents for them, and I found one worth 15.00!  I'd say that's an investment... If I could find anyone to buy it of course!!!

What do you look for at yard/estate sales??  How do you plan to use them in your future projects?  

Please feel free to post your pictures, or link up to the treasures you have found!  T

Thanks for looking, and come back soon!

Another Birthday Card

As promised I have some eye candy for today!!! 

This little beauty was a little bit of some left overs that I found in my studio.

The picture is from saturated canary's talented artist Krista Smith.  I colored it with copic and prismacolor markers.

The card I got on clearance in Hobby lobby, and the papers I've had for literally years!!!  

The little 3 and 5 are stamped with embossing ink, and then clear embossed, and then I distressed the paper with Ranger inks. and attached a brad.

It was a pretty quick card since I had already colored the digi stamp! 

I made this pretty little girl for my sister Tanya... so if your reading, sorry to spoil your card... but it's obviously MUCH better in person!!!  Enjoy!!

What is your favorite card making technique??  Are you like me, helter skelter??  Or do you plan everything out to the last detail??

Please feel free to follow my blog, I can't wait to meet all of you out there in blogland!! 

Happy Wednesday!

No Art Days!

Yesterday was one of those... No Art Days....

My work week starts on Sundays right now, and I work 12 hour shifts... It makes creating on work days difficult!

And yesterday was one of those "I'm too tired to even eat dinner" days!!!

Today however.... I was wide awake at 4 am and had 2 hours before work.... 

I still didn't create... I did however get to the gym... 

OHHHHH how wonderful that felt... 

Its just the start I needed to get the juices flowing, and hopefully keep me up those few extra hours tonight so I can create!  

On the agenda is a Graduation Card for my brother in law, (Master's from Duke!!!) and of course a Mothers Day card for mom... and A birthday card for my sister!!!  

That should keep me busy for an hour or two!   And on top of it I'm gonna get hubby to help since one of the cards is for his bro! 

Sorry I don't have any pics today... Hopefully tomorrow I'll have lots of pretty pictures of cards created!  

When do you have the time to create??   

Self portrait

I love to follow the challenges on http://artjournaling.ning.com 

While I haven't had a chance to do any of their challenges up until now, I love the 

inspiration that they throw my way!

This week the challenge is to do a self portrait.....

While looking in the mirror, and without really lifting the pen from the paper! 

Oy I said...

I can't draw....

Then I realized that was the whole point right??  

Just do it!!!  

Try something new!

Sooooo......

this is mine.....

No, I don't have pink hair!  or green eyes for that matter....

Part of the challenge was to use your favorite color...

So I colored my face yellow! 

Then I looked over at my doggin Sierra, and figured why not... so I drew her too!  Isn't she cute??

Check out the challenges...

And enjoy the journey.... after all isn't your art journal a place for discovery and trying new things???

What is vintage??

Do a google search for Vintage and you will come up with about 100 different styles of what is vintage. 

The last few days I have been working on an altered composition book. 

The only parameters I was given is "Vintage please."

I was floundering... I had even turned to hubby for some help! 

Then as I was leaving Hobby Lobby tonight I saw this....

and I knew I would be doing something using this as my inspiration....

As much as I hate to leave you all in blog world waiting, I haven't even yet begun the altered composition book... so there will be no pictures of that listed here...

Just a little more eye candy from this beauty...

Which were all shot from my ipad in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby, and were slightly altered using instagram!  Enjoy

She's a beauty, and what inspiration for vintage...

What do you think is vintage??  If you had to alter a composition book what would you do??  No really, any ideas are welcome!