Another Smash*ing challenge

It took me a few days to finish, but the smash*aholics facebook challenge was to use paint, glitter, and three pictures!

I had this page pegged from the day I bought the book!  I couldn't wait to smash it in...

Work got in the way Sunday and Monday, so I finally finished it tonight! 

All pics of food/ us eating those foods!  MMMMM  

We had a great time last summer in Philly and Washington DC with my sis and the fam,  seeing all the sites of our wonderful capitol! 

I was super happy to use Mary's photo transfer tutorial (find it here!) 

for the Jim's steaks sign that I printed out on reg-o printer paper! 

Just a little bit of glitter glue for the "Ben's" sign, and I was almost done!  

I washi'd up the pics, and voila!  a fun smash* page was born! 

I hope you're enjoying all my creations!  Feel free to follow along, or leave lovely comments!  Have a smash*ing evening!  Remember to create something today!

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??

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! 

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!

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???

10 tips to get past the blank art journal page

10 Tips

to get past the blank art journal page!

1. Put down a wash of color... Use watercolors, or acrylics.

2. Tear out a page of a magazine and modge podge or glue it down on the page.   Any magazine page will do... after all, you're probably going to cover it up again!

3. Distress just the edges and corners of the page.

4. Stamp your page directly from the ink pad and then quickly spritz with water.

or my favorite.......

This seems to work very best with the ranger distress inks as they stay wet longer.

5. Glue or modge podge a ripped up dress pattern to the page.

6. Haphazardly stamp with any of the rubber stamps you have not yet used, or haven't used in a long time!

7. Glue or paste that old calendar right onto your page!

8. Use something unexpected... try rubbing with charcoal, or how about some of those retread tires we see on the side of the highway? (Please be careful!!!  Don't get hit!!!)

9. Stick all your drink wrappers on a page... think the green tea bottle you just threw away, or the cup of joe you drank this morning.


10. Use that punchinella!  Abuse it!  Use all the ink pads you have!

After I put down a background on a page I usually shut my journal and leave it... Then when I'm ready to do a page I already have a bunch of backgrounds ready to choose from.

Translating a hobby!

#5 Hobby

My list of journal prompts from Mary

includes this beauty...
When I was at a recent meet up one of lovely ladies triggered an idea for this page. 

You see art journaling was not my first love... In fact, I had a whole life as a sewer and quilter prior to this adventure.  I even tried to sew a pair of pants once... that was a MAJOR fail!  

I am a lover of all things sewing though...
 I would love to have a dress form just for the inspiration it might lend to me!

I was super excited to use a leftover apron pattern in my art journal. 

I modge podge'd up the page and slapped that bad boy down!

Then it tore... and it didn't fit quite right... 

So I added some more pieces, and I stamped it up some using my Ranger distress inks!

It was starting to look better.... Then it hit me... since I was already going for a little sewing theme, why not actually sew on the pages??? 

So I pulled out my embroidery threads that mom had given me last time she was here.. and I went to work on the edges! 

Then I added a little sewing in the middle of the page with a piece out of my scrap dictionary about a "pattern." 

On the opposite side I used some glitter glue to write "Sewing Machine" 

and some ribbon that looks like a tape measure.  

Finally I added a quick sewn paper flower that I adapted from this tutorial.

I hope you enjoy!
What is a hobby that you would journal about?? 

Turning Vacation into art?

 My husband is a perpetual goof ball!

My parents love to go to thrift shops when they come to visit... Dad is always looking for local t-shirts, and mom is looking for household goods......

My husband on the other hand... he's never looking for anything in particular, and is more so just along for the ride!

Flagstaff, Arizona is just far enough north of Phoenix that they get snow most every winter, and are even close to skiing. 

This is my amazingly funny husband dressed up in the Flagstaff good will.

In case you can't read the bib below, it' reads "Don't feed the Bears, Feed Me!" 

What sort of silly and fun things do you do on vacations??  Do you sing in the car?  Do you make up games to play in the car?  Do you try on silly bibs??    How would you translate this into a journal page?? 

Orange

Create an orange page!

It's such a bright and happy color... but how do you make a whole page of orange???

This page is similar to one that I saw online, and while I should have written down the site, I didn't, and then of course I couldn't find the site... Luckily for me I did however write down some of the things on the page... This is my version of that page.  

I journaled exactly what I was doing at the time I was doing it.... 

The background is orange watercolors mixed with wild honey Ranger ink, and orange glitter watercolors.  The lettering is stamped using black soot Ranger ink.  And the white writing is a jelly roll.  

This page was super easy to make, and I love that it went together so quickly!

Journaling with a group

If you've checked out my bio at all you know that I moved to Arizona from Florida a few years ago.  And while I wasn't much of an "artist" while I was in Florida, I fancy that I have much more of an artistic streak now.  And while I have my very safe haven of my studio craft room I have found that it's important to have someone to bounce ideas off of. 

Since my work schedule has been all over the road for the last 4 years, it's been hard for me to stay with a group! 

First there was a group of quilters/ sewers that I met through a friend.  I was (and still am) a novice to the world of quilting, and it was great to have some older women who could give me tips and tricks to get things done!  Sadly this group met on Wednesdays, and when my work schedule changed so did my ability to go.

Then last year I wanted to try my hand at cake decorating.  I signed up for a class at a Joanns, that was cancelled, and rescheduled, and then cancelled again.  I finally got into a class and it was awesome to have others that were learning the same thing as me.  However when the class ended, and I signed up for the next one, it was cancelled, and changed, and cancelled and changed again.  I got annoyed and moved on to something else.

January is usually a month of resolutions and beginning new things.  As I looked around my studio I saw a lot of remnants of started projects, and thought what can I possibly do with these?  Enter art journaling.  It is a perfect outlet for trying new things, and of course using up some of those old things too! 

After about a month of going it on my own I turned to meetup to find a group of likeminded artists friends that I could bounce ideas off of, and get inspiration from their work as well.  I found a great group that meets periodically at the local starbucks.  How wonderful to know that there are others doing what I'm doing, and they are willing to share their knowledge with little old me!  What tools have you used to jumpstart your art??  Where do you go for inspiration??

Challenge #15

I had to read the rules twice before I determined that an art journal/ smash book entry would be fine! 

This is my first entry to the saturated canary challenge I am super excited to start using these fun digi stamp creations by Krista you can find them in her store here. 

This is my big beauty!  

I used copic and prismacolor markers to color her.  

And her close up!

The background for the page was painted with a wash of glitter watercolors, and the raindrops are of the same.

Some of the raindrops have a little Ranger Distress Crackle paint on them.  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by hope your are enjoying creating something today!