Lucky Me...

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well I am sure you can tell I have been taking a blogging break,
just had too much going on at home for the last month.
I am going to try and post more about my art journals on a new
blog that I created just for that. If you get the chance to pop
over there here is the link :
http://journal-journeys.blogspot.com/

Hope your new year is going well :)

Tag 12, the final tag...

2011-12-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

So sad that this was the last of the tags :( Now I am going to have
to get on with everything I need to do for my son's birthday this
weekend followed by Christmas the following weekend. Just hope
I have enough time left, lol!

Well this tag took me a while because I had a major disaster with
the blue paint. I had no idea I had got blue paint all down the side

of my hand, which then transferred to my desk, then my sleeve
and then finally all over my new sweater that I was wearing today.
I have now finished washing it for the third time and I am hopeful
the paint came out!

As for the tag, again I was missing lots of the supplies so had to
improvise with my Umbrella Man yet again. This is a record for
me having used him 3 times this year. Maybe next year I will use
him in every tag, or maybe I will have to buy some of the xmas
dies and stamps :)

Ok Tim I hope you will be doing this again next year, pretty please!

Day 11 Tag...

2011-12-11T15:32:00.001-07:00

Here is my tag for today, had to do more improvising again.
Today's technique called for the use of shrink plastic. Well I
had some a while ago but had used it all, I improvised by
using some of the tiles I had made months ago with the

shrink plastic I had then. Of course being seriously lacking in
holiday stamps and dies I had to make do with the same
choices. However I think this is the first time this year that I
used the snowman, it was either him or my favourite

umbrella man again!!

Day 10 Tag...

2011-12-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Gosh I have done more blogging this week than in the last few
months. Here is today's tag with another simple but very elegant
looking technique. I have to say that the thing that took me the
most time with this was trying to find the foil tape I had bought
earlier this week!! Spent over half an hour trying to find it then
gave up and then of course it appeared somewhere I had already looked.

I really like using the plastic letters and adding paint or glossy
accents to them to make them really stand out. I really have
enjoyed the last 4 days tags, only 2 more days and then it is
over :( All the details for the tag are on Tim's blog.

Day 9 Tag...

2011-12-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yay! I am on time today!! So you may have noticed that I do not
have a lot of the Sizzix Dies that are being used for the 12 Tags.
Well I really don't own many dies at all which is why I have a
hard time doing the tags and have to improvise a lot.

Today's technique was another fun one, for all the details go and
visit Tim's blog.

One thing I have been doing this year that is really cool is using
the Distress Stains to die some white seam binding type ribbon
to use at the top of some of my tags. They work beautifully for
this and so I had to go and buy myself a huge roll of it so I can
make lots of pretty coloured ribbons :)

Tags 7 & 8...

2011-12-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Spent today working on these 2 tags and really had a lot of fun
with them, I think I have got my mojo back! Above is day 7's
tag which was simple but so fun to do.
If you have not tried the Kraft Glassine yet you need to run out
and get some. I made flowers with mine unlike the greenery that
Tim showed in his example here. The background was a quick
technique although I guess I didn't read the directions until after
I had done part of it so I did not do the water spritzing before I
dried it. I really like the simplicity and style of this tag.

This is today's Steampunk style tag and I absolutely love all the
details involved in this one. There was a lot of steps involved
and this is really the first tag this year that I have mostly copied
from Tim. I have to admit that the reason I was able to copy it is
that I actually went out and bought this stamp set today (I did

use a 40% off coupon though!). Looking forward to seeing what

is in store tomorrow :)

Day 6 Tag...

2011-12-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

So glad that I was able to finish this tag on the same day. It was a
fun new technique to try, for all the details go to Tim's blog.

It actually took quite a while to do this one as there was a lot of
waiting around for paint to dry and I had to keep going back
and forth from my craft desk to the room where my computer is.
I am glad that I am up to date now and glad this only took 1 attempt :)

Days 4 & 5 tags...

2011-12-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well I finally finished yesterday's tag this evening, sensing a
pattern here :) I did not have the dies that Tim had yet again,
to see what they were go here. I did just recently get the
house dies and cut out a heart shape from it. Not really
holiday-ish but I am improvising. This took time as I had
to wait a long time for all the crackle paint to dry.

This is the tag for today which again was a lot of improvisation. It
is about this time that I am kicking myself for not buying all of the
wonderful new products that Tim Holtz released this fall. Anyway,
I did not have the Holiday Reflections stamp but I had the first
Reflections stamp that he came out with. The technique for the
background was really cool, not sure I got it to work as well as
Tim did but I am very happy with it. Looking forward to see
what tomorrow's challenge will be for me :)

Day 3 Tag...

2011-12-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Finally finished this tag!! It is now Sunday and the Day 4 tag is up
but I have just finished day 3, aarghh! the pressure :)

My son is home from college this weekend and so I have been
trying to sneak in time to do these tags. This is my 3rd attempt at
this tag, just do not have all the supplies that Tim Holtz uses and
trying to adapt to what I had for this tag seemed so hard even
though it was a simpler tag. Well it is done, not 100% in love
with it but need to move on now.

Day 2 Tag...

2011-12-02T20:30:00.001-07:00

It is 8:20pm and I finally finished today's tag! I did not start until
late as I had to really think about how to do this tag without
having anything close to the die that Tim used. I reverted back to
a favourite of mine, the umbrella man, sorry if you recognize him
from previous tags :) For all the details on todays tag go to Tim's blog.

The colours did not show up too well due to the fact I took this at
night and the lighting is awful at night. I found a piece of cream
coloured seam binding to use as the trim and used one of the
Distress Stains to colour it.
This is a quick and easy way to colour your own ribbons, love this
idea, in fact I did it for yesterdays tag too!

12 Tags of Christmas...

2011-12-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Yes it is that time again already! Tim Holtz is doing his 12 Tags of
Christmas for 2011, you can read all about todays tag on his
website. This will be my 3rd year following along with this and
the photo is my take on Day No.1 today.

Just like last year I am not feeling the love for the first
tag, mainly because I have very few of the supplies
that Tim used this time and also last year. I do not do
a lot of holiday stuff in my art so buying all the dies he
uses is just not in my budget (especially now I have a child in college!).

I did have the embossing folder he used and the tattered banner
die too so had to improvise with everything else. I am not 100%
happy with it but it is done and I am looking forward to seeing
what he comes up with for tomorrow.

Bloom True & Be Bold...

2011-11-01T12:31:00.001-07:00

This weekend I went to California to take the "Bloom True" class
with Flora Bowley. The 2 day workshop was hosted by the
fabulous Jenny Doh at her brand new location in Santa Ana,
California. She is lining up more fabulous art classes!!

What a wonderful experience this was, 17
women all learning how to be brave and be true and let go in their
painting. Flora started the day off by getting us all together and we
all shared what brought us there and what we wanted to get out
of the class.
After a little stretching and breathing we got to watch her demo
how to start out on our paintings. Throughout the day we did
various exercises on our canvases and had several other
demonstrations. It was a wonderful process and over the first day
our pieces changed dramatically.

Here is Flora working on her piece, this changed quite a lot over
the course of the weekend. She used this piece for all of her
demonstrations and even used it to show us how to fix what we
thought were mistakes, at one point she made everyone gasp
in horror as she put a huge splash of green paint over the face!

Here is how her piece ended up, well I think this is the final piece
but honestly I wasn't very good at taking photos as I was so
immersed in the painting process. It was a good feeling to be
so involved in the painting :)

Now this is a picture of one of my canvases, (we worked on 2),
after a couple of layers had been added to it. I had a very hard
time letting go at first but on the 2nd day of the class I was bold
and let go of the part of the painting I liked the most.
This was the wonderful thing that I got from the class, to be
bold and let go, to trust it would be ok and it was only paint!

This is how that canvas ended up, a totally different thing for me,
my friend Michelle who took this class with me was surprised at
how it turned out. I usually go with blues, greens and a dash of
purple in any of my art work, also doing an organic kind of shape
is unusual for me. I am still working on my 2nd canvas and I
know I will be able to make it into something wonderful.

Thanks Flora for a wonderful experience. I really appreciate
all of the help and advice you gave during the class. It is so

great to take a class with a small group as we got a lot of

one on one advice and made some new art friends.

The Sketchbook Project 2012...

2011-10-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well I finally finished the whole thing and now I need to mail it off.
I had actually finished all of it except for the front cover back in
July. For some reason I was stuck on doing the cover, I think I was
intimidated by it, lol! Anyway last week I just decided I had to do
it whatever it ended up like and get my book mailed off. Last year
I signed up late and finished it just a few weeks before the deadline.
This year I signed up within a week or so of them opening up the
project and I wanted it done quickly.

My theme for this year was "Monochromatic", I had no plan for
this when I chose the theme and even had the book a month or
so before starting it. The book has 15 double page spreads
and then front and back pages. I am only showing a couple of
pages here but am hoping to upload them all on the website for the
Sketchbook Project.

When I finally got my book on my desk to work on it I just came up
with the idea of using varying shades of a colour on each page and
seeing what happened. I used some great border stamps and filled
them in using coloured pencils. I found out last year that the pages
were much too thin to use any kind of paints or inks and even
markers bled through. Hard to tell but for each colour I used
about 10-12 different coloured pencils on the page.

When I had done all the pages I had a thought of turning it into
some kind of maze, although some of my pages did not really
work for that. One day whilst browsing on the internet I found
a really cool little story and ended up using that through
the pages of my book. I honestly have no idea where I saw it
or who to attribute it to and I am sorry about that as it was a fun story.

So now we get to the back page which has the last line of the story.
I am glad I finished it early and hope to mail it off this week. I am
not sure if I will do it again next year or not. Anyone else out there
doing this project this year??

Catch up post...

2011-09-29T13:10:00.001-07:00

This last week was busy as we were getting ready to go to the
Family Weekend at my son's college. Lots of e-mails and phone
calls trying to figure out things that he wanted/needed us to bring
for him. In the end even with a big box of stuff and a last minute
call for a pair of black jeans hanging in his closet, he still forgot to
tell us to bring a couple of other things he needed. Oh well that
will be for the next time.
We did have a really nice time visiting with him and spending
family time together, something his younger brother needed.

As you can see we obviously did a lot and needed to rest up after
our hard work of visiting with him, eating good food and being out
in the heat of Arizona.

My younger son has started learning to drive so my husband
decided it would be good for him to drive us down to Tucson,
on the freeway at 75mph!! I was a little nervous to say the
least but he did an excellent job considering it was his first time
on the freeway and has only had his learners permit about
6 weeks. He actually asked if he could drive back even though
he thought driving on the freeway was incredibly boring.

And here is the young man himself. This week he went in front of
the Eagle Scout Board of Review for the final review on his
Eagle Scout project and ultimately being awarded the rank of
Eagle Scout. We are so proud of him and now I need to get
working on an album to be ready when we have his Eagle Court
of Honor. That will be my next project.

What I did this weekend...

2011-09-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

I got to take a really fun class with Dina Wakley this Saturday. I
made the trek up to Glendale, AZ to the Creative Quest with my
friends Lisa and Anjie where Dina was teaching this class. The
cover was made from canvas which we decorated graffiti style
and Dina had very kindly sewn covers for us already.

We had fun with paint and stamps and got to use Dina's new line of
stamps, they are really fun and so I had to buy a couple of them :)

We did do all of our pages in class but some of us decided to do the
assembly of it back home. It was a really grungy fun binding, just
sewing straight which even I could manage. So my book is done
apart from what I am going to put in it, thinking maybe some fun
quotes, any other suggestions???

Still journaling...

2011-09-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

Yes I am still art journaling and I am so happy to say that I am
keeping up with my Layout A Day class. This is a page I worked
on just recently, again trying to do the Teesha Moore style, this
is really hard for me as I am not good at lettering so I cheated
with this page :) I have been wanting to try this style for
a long time and this is the 3rd page I have done in this journal.
I have been spending most of my time doing my LOAD class and
am really pleased that I am using up some older photos. Also I
have decided that some of my photos are just not scrap-worthy,
it is so freeing to just toss them out!

This is a very abstract page I did at the end of last year that I
really, really like and I do not know why, I just do. I am hoping
to really get back on track with my art journaling once my class
is over, although I am really enjoying the fact that I am making

layouts to go in my albums :)

Get a LOAD of this...

2011-09-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

So here is what I have been doing the last few days, actually making scrapbook layouts!
I signed up to take "The Mother LOAD" class on Big Picture Classes.
The class started at the beginning of July with basic training which
was to get us ready for our marathon of doing a LayOut A Day for
the month of September. I started out as a scrapbooker 15 years
ago but have slowly lost interest in it over the last year or so to do
other things. I have taken so many pictures that are waiting here
for me to do something with so I thought this may help me get
back into scrapbooking. I was very naughty and really did not
do any of the basic training but I have to say so far I have been
able to do my layout every day, so pleased that I am keeping up
so far. Today's prompt was to use a self-portrait that we had
taken recently, I had the idea to find a couple of others and voila!
my hair through the years page was done!

This layout was yesterday's prompt, so funny that this was just 3
years ago and my youngest son looks so grown up now. He said
he did not like these photo's that he looked terrible. I think he said
that because he looks so young in them.

This is actually the first prompt we got which was to document our
goals/aspirations. My goal was to have a child, took me a while but
I was blessed to have 2 healthy boys and this is something that I
really have not documented in a scrapbook yet, now was the time.

Now I really hope I can keep this up for the rest of the month!

I'm Back....

2011-08-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

lol! Well I really, really wanted to find an easier way to blog more

regularly but I am having issues with Tumblr and they have not
been very helpful. In the past I have looked at the other 2 main
blog sites but despite the painful issues sometimes, Blogger is the easiest.

So what has been going on with me? well we had a visit from our
son this weekend, 2 weeks away at college and he wanted to come
and visit us :) It was a good visit but hard to say goodbye again.

I have been trying to find time to work in my art journals, have
started a few pages but they are in progress. I finally managed
to do a page influenced by the style of Teesha Moore. I love
her style and have tried many times but have never liked what
I did and ended up covering over them. Finally I did a page that
I actually like and think isn't that bad! So now I feel that perhaps

I can do more of this style I am working on a couple more pages

similar to this. So what are you working on this week??

Trying something new...

2011-08-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

I have found it difficult over the last few months to do regular
updates on my blog, I know that happens to lots of people,
life gets busy. I have decided to try out a new blog on
Tumblr as it seems to be the kind of thing that you can do much
quicker and shorter postings on. This blog will remain open for
the foreseeable future but I will try to do more regular posts
on my Tumblr blog. You can click the link above or go here.

Life changes...

2011-08-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been in the Twilight Zone the last 10 days or so. It
has been a whirlwind of trying to get everything together for the
day Alex left for college, something we have all been dreading. We
seemed to be getting things done and Alex had a little free time to
make plans with friends before leaving. That was until last
Thursday, Alex cut off part of his finger using a mandoline to
slice an apple (be warned, those things are very sharp and
dangerous). He did not want me to take him to the Emergency
Room as he said there was nothing they could do, his finger would
not stop bleeding, just pouring and pouring. I tried something
called Liquid Bandage, he screamed when I put it on, it was so
incredibly painful. It did not stop and I kept putting more on as I
did not know how to get the blood to stop. I told him again we
needed to go, he said no as it would cost too much money to go
there!! After 35 mins of non stop bleeding I put him in the car and
drove as fast as I could to the Urgent Care. They took one look
at the masses of blood soaked paper towels covering his hand and
took him straight in. Seems that this was an injury they had seen
many times, nothing left to stitch or glue together so they just had
to dress it and bandage it. No pain medicine or antibiotics were
prescribed, and we know it will be a long healing process.

Alex is a very positive person and we still had to get everything
packed and ready for our drive to the University of Arizona on
Sunday. We got everything packed and headed out early Sunday
morning. After spending most of the day there we got his dorm
room all set up and ready. We tried to do as much as we could
for him as we did not know how much he could tolerate with his
finger, after all it is really an open wound under his bandage.

Here he is waving goodbye from his room as we left him there. I
managed to keep it together until we got back to our car, and then shed a few tears.

We are all feeling a little lost around here without Alex, my
younger son is really missing him, they are very close.
I tried to get some of my feelings down on an art journal page
and I think it helped a little.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Hoping that there are no
more major drama's in my life for a while...

Back from Art Unraveled...

2011-08-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I was able to get away and spend a couple of days at the
Art Unraveled event held here in Phoenix. My friend Michelle
came in from Oregon for the week and we took just a couple of
classes together. This is the two of us after we completed our
books in Daniel Essig's class.

This is a closer look at my book, although I had a hard time getting
a good photo of it. The front and back covers are made with mica
so whatever paper you use underneath it looks very old and aged.
Hard to believe but the papers I used were black and white from
the 7 Gypsies Paddington line. The binding looks tricky but once
you did one set of stitches it all seemed to fall into place. I liked
the relaxed pace of the class and Daniel was a great teacher. If you
are at all into bookmaking I highly recommend taking one of his classes.

This is from my class with Chris Cozen, she is an educator for
Golden Paints and an absolutely wonderful teacher. I highly
recommend taking any class with her if you get the chance. In this
class we had to make 4 small collages on 4"x4" canvases. Everyone

was given the same small packet of materials to use and you could
choose all, or some of the supplies. Of course we all got to use the
fabulous Golden paints to first paint our canvas. We had to use the
same elements in a different way on all 4 of the canvases.

At the end we chose one to swap with someone and got to keep the
other 3, that was the hardest part of the class!

I also took classes with Traci Bautista and Kelly Kilmer which were
technique classes and not finished projects, but lots of fun!

I had a good time even though I was only there 2 days, if

you are in Phoenix next August you should look into taking a
couple of classes there.

Collage class...

2011-07-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

The other weekend I went up to Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale to
take a class with Cindy Kovack that was called Fractured Masters.
It was definitely a new style for me and at first I thought it would
be easier than it was. We were told to pick a focal image from a
whole pile of images that Cindy had brought for us to choose from.

Her main instruction was to go with what you immediately liked,
not to think about it for too long. I found my image almost
immediately, and that guided the rest of the choices for my collage.

We had to find colours that matched our main image and then the
fun began, looking through magazines just looking for colours. I
had a couple of pictures that I used for my background and I am
sure you would never know that most of my background is made
up from photos of people who are covered in tattoo's!! The colours
in the photos really went well with my main image which is the
colour blocked picture.

When I had done most of it Cindy and I knew it needed something
else and she found the triangular image for me which I added on.
Despite the fact that I liked my choices of image and background
my main image seemed to fade into the background, so when I got
home I added black dimensional paint around it. Even that did not
seem to make much of a difference so I added white, which helped
it stand out more.

I am not really sure if I like this piece yet. Now I know what the
process was, I think I should have perhaps made some different
choices. I am always usually someone who likes to weigh all the
options first and this time I did not, maybe that was good for

me to get me a little out of my box :)

Canvas crazy...

2011-07-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Since I took the Larger than Life class with Alisa Burke at the
Create event in May, all I want to do is graffiti style painting on
pieces of canvas or fabric. I just finished doing Alisa's online class
"Graffiti Chic 2" which is really an extension of what we learned
in the class. I love the freedom of this type of art, you just keep
going back and adding layers and if you don't like something
you just paint right over it! Believe me I have done that on these
canvases. Actually the piece above is done on muslin fabric with
very watered down paint, a new thing for me and I really enjoyed it.

Now this piece is the last one I did on canvas before I did the
muslin piece. Again as with the previous ones I showed here,
to me it is not finished, needs more layers. I am just leaving them
out on view in my house hoping that the inspiration as to what to
add next will hit me. I have always been a "less is more" with my
art work, some call that "clean and simple" in the scrapbooking
world (which is where I started on this art path). So now I have
4 pieces of painted canvas and 1 piece of painted muslin, what
am I going to do with them??

The best laid plans...

2011-07-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was supposed to be in Carson, CA to take classes
with the fabulous Teesha Moore and then attend the Carson Stamp
show. My family left at the beginning of the week for 2 weeks so
this was a great break for me in the middle of their trip.

I was going there with my very good friend Lisa who was really
excited to be going to her very first art retreat. We spent all Weds
e-mailing back and forth, what clothes do we need? are you taking
a jacket? will it be cold in the classroom? what art supplies should
we take? is toothpaste a liquid? etc.

Thursday I drove over to her house then we went off to the
airport, it was not busy there as we had checked in online
and we were carrying our bags on, there was only 1 person
in front of us at the security check point, we were so excited!

We got lunch then went at sat by our gate for the flight. Twenty
minutes before the flight the gate person apologized to us for
our wait, we were puzzled, then told us that our flight was at a
different gate. We rushed over to the new gate, which was not

close by and then saw our flight had been delayed, oh no! We
patiently sat there and kept listening to the announcements telling
us when the next update would be. After several times of
extending the delay it was finally announced that they had
cancelled the flight, nothing else was said or offered to us.
Luckily Lisa had got us on standby for the next flight but alas
after waiting and waiting that one was full. Whilst waiting for
that one we had made a reservation for the last one, that one
ended up also being delayed to the point we were told we could
fly to another city or go in the morning. This was when we looked
at each other and decided that this was just not meant to be, Lisa
called her husband and he came and picked us up.

So I arrived home all alone with the bags I had packed that same
morning, feeling really, really upset that we did not get to go. The
next morning we decided that we would go out for a nice lunch
and then get together to work in our art journals. We had a great
lunch out with a delicious dessert and then today spent most of
the day with another friend playing in our journals and had lunch
delivered to my house.

Thursday was not a great day but I could not have spent the day

with a better person, thanks Lisa :)

The Sketchbook Project 2012...

2011-07-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Yes I decided to sign up for this year's round of the Sketchbook
Project even after the stress of getting it finished on time this year.
If you have not heard about this and would like to know what it
is all about then please go here. For the 2011 project I did not
find out about it until late last year and received my
sketchbook in mid October. At first I was so excited to take
part in this project but once I had the book in my hands I was
nervous to start. I did start, and I finished it and sent it in on time.
In fact you can even view some of my pages online right here.
My theme last year was called "In 5 Minutes...", I decided to use
each spread to ask a question of sorts and by the last few pages
I was running out of ideas. This year I thought I would go with
something more abstract and so my theme for this year is....
"Monochromatic".

I actually started my book over the weekend, shockingly I did not
make a plan for this. I just got some art materials out and started,
this is not like me at all as I usually like to think about
something for a while and then start. I was wondering as I sat at
my desk colouring in my pages, how many people plan their
projects out and how many just go for it?

I am showing off 2 of the 8 pages I have worked on. I honestly had
no idea what I was doing when I started except that I wanted each
page to be in their own monochromatic theme. After I finished the
first 2 pages it started to look like each page was a very simple
maze, so now I am thinking I may try to somehow incorporate
that into my theme.

I have high hopes this year of not getting stressed out about this as
I have a much earlier start on it. I know a few people who
participated last year and am wondering if they will also be doing it again this year?

Grungy Monday #13...

2011-06-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Gosh where have the weeks gone? We had a nice relaxing time
away last week and I missed doing last week's Grungy Monday.
I was finally able to find a little bit of time to do this week's
challenge. Go over to Linda's blog for all the details.

This week we are taking on Ranger Alcohol inks as demonstrated

by Tim Holtz on the Ranger website here.

It is always fun to play with these inks as you never know exactly

how it will turn out. I love how you can make a really busy
background but whatever you stamp on top still stands out. I

just went really simple this week with my tag as I am limited

on free time, tissue tape is one of my go-to's these days. I love
using it and goodness knows I have plenty of it!!

Grungy Monday #11...

2011-06-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got time to join in the challenge this week. For the
details on this go and visit Linda's blog. The technique we are
using this week can be found on Tim Holtz's blog, it is from
January 2008.

I had no problems with the first part of this technique but then it
got tricky, anything that involves an iron is always bad news for
me! I followed the instructions but had an issue with the newsprint
paper sticking to my stamped image. I managed to scrape off
most of the paper and actually don't think you can see it, well I hope not anyway!

I do not have a lot of quote stamps so have to keep taking turns
with the few I have, I also used some of the newer tissue
tape at the top. I love the tissue tape except for the fact that this
new batch has no sticky stuff on it and I had to glue it down with
a tape runner. Anyway my tag is done and I can get ready now

for our family vacation next week.

Road trip...

2011-06-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post as I have had no time for art this last week or so.
My son left yesterday on his first ever road trip with a friend, he
drove them to California to go surfing. Needless to say I am a little
nervous as he has never driven such a long distance before.

He has so far had a busy summer, only been home about 6 days
since he graduated high school, still I guess it is getting me used
to the idea he will not be here that much :(

We went down to the University of Arizona at the end of last week
for his orientation, he is showing off his new school logo on his
tank top. It was definitely a whirlwind and an overload of
information, but we feel better now we have been down there.

This is really my excuse for not having done any art lately, I am
hoping to do some work in my art journals and would love to
paint some more canvas, here's hoping...

Sharing some art...

2011-06-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

It seems like so long ago now that I was at the CREATE event when
really it was just a few weeks ago. Above is the other canvas piece
that I did in Alisa Burke's class. This was the one that was more
finished but I really wasn't sure about. I have now had it sitting on
a table in my house staring at me for the last few weeks. I still am
not sure about it but my good friend Lisa thought it was so nice
that she wanted to buy it from me!
I know there is that saying about being our own worst critic so for
the moment this piece is being left as is.

I enjoyed the process so much with the canvas that I decided to
start a new one this weekend. You can see it above, this is the
stage I got it to and am now wondering how to finish this one off.

You may notice I went for completely different colours than
usual. I am a green/blue/purple person when it comes to making art.
These are my go to colours that I love to use. In fact I took a
class last fall where one of the exercises was to make a sample
chart of all the paints we had so we would not get duplicates and
could see where we were lacking. I had no orange paint,1 yellow
paint and 2 reds. I had 2 sheets full of blue paint and almost
the same of green. I found this to be a very interesting exercise,
I now own 1 tube of orange paint:)

Finally I want to share my first page in the 3 Hearts workshop I am
taking with the very talented Christy Tomlinson. So sad that this is
the last week of class, although we will have a couple of months to
view the videos there will be no more new content added. I have
had a lot of fun watching all of the technique videos, there were
53 of them!!!
Anyway this is my first finished art journal page but I have

a few in progress. I have seen so many new techniques with this
class it is hard to choose which one to try next.

Grungy Monday #9...

2011-06-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

It seems I have not blogged for a while, too much going on with
the end of school and my son's high school graduation last week.
It was a long week and now I am looking forward to not having
to get up early and having time to do more art!

So here is my attempt at this weeks challenge posted on
Linda's blog. The technique is another one of Tim Holtz's 12 tag
techniques, go here to find out how you can do this technique.

I have to say that I have been working on this tag all week, had
some issues and this was my 3rd attempt at it, I know it is sad, lol!
I always have issues when it comes to using the paint dabbers,
love the idea of them but the ones I have just never work the way
they are supposed to. So I struggled through with it and finally finished it.

In the meantime I am taking the next of Christy Tomlinson's online
classes and she has put so much into this class it is amazing. She
just did Ranger U and is using lots of techniques she learned there.
Our first week's lesson had 28 videos of techniques to watch, yes
28 videos!! I believe the class is now closed but she may run it
again just like her "She Art" class that I took and loved, I know

a couple of people taking it the 2nd time due to my recommendation.
I am still working my way through this week's videos and hope to
have some pages ready to post soon. Wishing everyone an art filled week!

Back from CREATE event...

2011-05-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well it seemed like I was gone for a long time, it was 5 days so I
guess it was:) I took a fabulous class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer,
pictured with me above. It was all about carving your own stamps,
but to make them so they were layered. Basically we made 3 stamp
blocks for the image we chose. You could then ink each one a
different colour and stamp them so they layered on top of each other.
I did do a very simple image to start with and am pleased with my
first attempt. I do have some of the carving material left over so
when things calm down around here, (soon hopefully!), I will
definitely make more stamps. Julie was a great instructor, very
helpful and fun and I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone
to try something new.

The next day I took a class with Alisa Burke, I was really looking
forward to trying out the kind of graffiti style that she does. It was
called "Larger Than Life" as we were to paint on large canvases. It
was really down to personal choice as to what was large for each
person. I would say my canvas was in the average of what most
people did, there were some who made their's a lot bigger. I was
just worried about how I would transport it back home on the plane.
Alisa was also a great instructor, willing to come and help you
if you were unsure of what to do next, believe me I did take
advantage of that:) The piece above is one of 2 that I did. My
other piece is more finished but I like this one better. We were
supposed to add some sort of focal point and I did on my other
piece but am not 100% happy with it, I may change it up a little
and if I do I will post a photo.

This was from my final class on Sunday morning, it was again with
Alisa, this was her Doodled Surface Design class. I did this piece
in class and you would not believe that the vibrant red
background is from one of Alisa's favourite supplies, a set of
Crayola watercolours!!

Finally I got out my sketchbook to while away the 2 1/2 hours I
had to wait at the airport and tried to practice some of the things
that Alisa had talked about in class that day. I am actually quite
proud of this. I also started a Zentangle after this and one lady
came over to me twice to tell me how much she loved what I
was doing and had I drawn it myself!!

Grungy Monday #7...

2011-05-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

This week's Grungy Monday challenge is based on a technique
from Tim Holtz that is on the Ranger Ink website go here to
check it out. This is a technique I have not done before but is so
easy and can give lots of different results. To see what I mean
go and visit Linda's blog for lots more examples.

This is definitely a technique that lets you find out which of your
ink pads need to be re-inked, lol! I found that all of the colours
I chose to begin with definitely needed to be re-inked.
Unfortunately I do not own all of the reinkers for all of the Distress
ink pads I have:( Anyway I still made a background in similar
colours to my original choices. I did go over the dress form stamp
with my stardust gelly roll pen but I could not get it to show up in
the pictures, it looks very sparkly in real life.

Tomorrow I am heading out to California to attend the "Create"
event which is put on by Cloth,Paper,Scissors magazine. I am
so excited to be trying some new art classes with teachers I have
not had before. I will try and post from there but cannot
guarantee it. If I do it will be on my new site I just set up through
tumblr.com. If you would like to check it out then visit me here
and you can see one of the birthday gifts I received :)

Grungy Monday #6...

2011-05-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

Seems like a long time since Grungy Monday #5, well it was an
extra special 2 week challenge as the lovely Linda was soaking
up all the goodness of Ranger U, lucky girl!

This week I decided to use my favourite stamp the umbrella man, I
love this stamp and therefore try very hard not to over use it. I
was so excited when the Umbrella Man die came out and now
I own it! I will never have to cut out around the stamp again:)

So onto the challenge, this was taken from yet another one of
Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas techniques, go here to get all the details on it.

I did actually do this technique when Tim posted it for his 12 tags,
and had a hard time then and the same problem this time. I do not
think my paint dabber has enough paint flow coming out to really
do a great job with the technique but I went ahead

and carried on anyway (kind of like my saying!).

Art Journaling Fun...

2011-05-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun page I did over the weekend. Two of my friends came
over on Saturday and we got to work on our art journals. I started
3 different pages but this was the one that got totally finished, the
others are still in progress. It is always fun to do art with your
friends,we get to share our supplies and ask for opinions on things.
The photo below shows our messy table filled with paints, stencils, glues, tape etc.

This is the second Saturday that we have been able to get together
and play in our journals. We are really hoping that we get to do
this on a regular basis. I recently got my friend Lisa started with
art journaling and she just loves it. So between the 2 of us we
converted a new friend Anjie to join us, we have a fun time
chatting and trying out new techniques. We have decided that
we need a name for our art journal meetings/group, we haven't
come up with anything yet but we are open for suggestions...

Grungy Monday #5...

2011-04-28T09:47:00.001-07:00

So here is my attempt at this weeks technique, you can find out all
about it over on Linda's blog. This is a technique that Tim Holtz
showed on his blog back in 2008.

I actually started this on Monday and got so far then had it sitting
around trying to figure out how to finish it off. I always have an
idea of one thing that I want to use and go with that then have a
hard time trying to figure out how to add to it. For this week I
knew I wanted to use the little compass and that was my starting point.
After I did that I really had a hard time trying to figure out what
next, I found the quote and the rub-on and then was stuck. I
finally decided to add the 2 butterflies, not my usual style but I
am happy that it is done.

So what is your method when you start a new challenge or project?

She Art girl no.6...

2011-04-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well I finally finished this one that I started last week. I am quite
pleased with it and now have a series of girls that are a little
more modern than the first few I did. The last 3 girls I did on flat
canvas panels instead of on a regular canvas. I prefer the flat
panels as it is easier to work on a solid surface.

Using a regular canvas can be difficult when doing stuff in the middle
unless you remember to put your hand behind the canvas as a support
when stamping etc.

So now what to do with these girls?? I am sending off 1 or 2 to a
charity fundraiser that Christy mentioned in class. My friend Lisa
suggested I could use one as a cover for a journal, I have actually
made a journal before using canvas panels. Although figuring out
the binding was a bit of a pain! Will have to think about that one...

Grungy Monday #4...

2011-04-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well I feel like I have been missing in action as it is now week 4
of Grungy Monday and I missed the last 2 weeks due to being
away and then catching up with life after I got home.
The lovely Linda is hosting this challenge so go over to her blog
and find out what it is all about. We are using the techniques of
Tim Holtz, some of which are using products and some are using
techniques he has shown.

So this week's technique was something that Tim introduced for
his 12 Tags of Christmas last December, if you go to Linda's blog
there is a video link there.
I am not 100% happy with my attempt but it was the 2nd tag I
did and do not want to use up too many as I only have a few of
them. I used Tim's Cracked Texture Fade, don't ask me what colour

inks I used as I kept adding more on as I did not like the original
colours I used. The bird is a stamp from Marah Johnson, sticker
is a 7 Gypsies. Not much more to say except that I need to
practice this technique until I figure out which is the best side of
the embossing folder to put the ink on!!

Life is so busy...

2011-04-13T09:37:00.002-07:00

Life is so busy these days, I have not had chance to do much art or to
catch up on my blog. Our youngest son has been busy getting ready to
do his Eagle Scout Project. We had a car wash fundraiser for him
at the beginning of April so he could get the money to buy supplies
for his project. His actual project was this past weekend and sadly
I was not there for it due to the fact that last October I had booked
my trip to Artfest in Washington state. At the time of course we had
no idea that he would be doing his Eagle Project at the same time.
Still I was there to help at his car wash and maybe one day he will
forgive me:(

I did not take many pictures at Artfest, the one above is at the beach
at Fort Warden where Artfest is held. It was very cold and windy
there so could not stay too long. I was there trying to find a small
flat stone to use in one of my projects.

This is a photo of Jesse Reno, it was my favourite class of the whole

event. He was so much fun and really I would have loved to have

taken more classes with him. The whole point of this class was to

have the Freedom to Create, no thinking, just doing. The piece he

is showing is what he started working on in class, sorry forgot to

get a photo of it at the end of the day. He starts out all of his

paintings just painting with his hands, yes I mean it. He mixes his

colours by squirting paint in his hands and then uses his hands to

apply the paint to his piece. It was actually really fun to do, very

messy but fun. I need to do a lot more work on my piece so I am

not sharing any photos of it right now.

It was fun to be away from home and I had fun with my art friend

Michelle, she did a great job of looking after me and making sure

that I did not pick up my very heavy suitcase due to my back.

Not sure if we will go back again next year, the weather was mostly

better than when we went last year but the last 2 days were freezing.

Now it is back home and back to the chaos of real life, school stuff,

boy scout stuff, car problems, laundry to catch up on, husband out

of town again, etc....

These are addicting...

2011-03-31T17:11:00.002-07:00

When I first signed up for Christy Tomlinson's She Art class I really
did not think I would like making the "she" part, for me it was all
about the backgrounds. Well I have to say that I have been having
so much fun making these that I cannot stop! If you are at all
interested in taking the class, it is starting up on 11th April,
go here for the details.

Since starting the class I have been seeing similar kinds of art work

out there, and in fact last night I was reading the latest edition of

Artists' Cafe by Somerset and found 2 articles in there that were

about making this type of art. It amazes me that when we start
something new we suddenly notice that it is all around us but we
just did not see it before. Life is just full of coincidences,
don't you think?

Grungy Monday #1...

2011-03-28T15:21:00.002-07:00

Oh Studio L3 how I have missed you!! it has only been a few weeks
but having a new challenge to look forward to every Monday was
just so much fun.

In case you have no idea what I am talking about you need to head

over to Linda's blog to see what is going on. Linda has decided she

missed us all so much she wanted to start another challenge. Linda

contacted Tim Holtz and we are now doing challenges based on his

techniques and products. Not sure if there is a time limit on this

new challenge but I am happy that we have a new one to work on.

So this challenge is based on the techniques used in one of the

12 Tags of Christmas for 2008. I did do all of the techniques
required but changed some of the embellishments used to what
I thought went with my main part, a fabulous stamp from
Graphic 45 that I had been trying to get for ages. Finally found
it on www.etsy.com. I am really happy with the way this turned
out and cannot wait to see what everyone else is doing.

Final She Art Girl...

2011-03-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well I really had decided not to make another canvas for the
She Art workshop. However I had 2 backgrounds that I had
done during the 2nd week of class and really didn't know what
I would do with them. After all I have already made 3 She Art
canvases and seriously have nowhere to put them in my house.
Also I just loved the background of this and did not want to
cover it up by adding anything on top of it. Well I saw something
on the internet that inspired me to do this and so here is my final
girl, and I really mean final - well for now anyway!!

I am not really a girly girl so that is why I hesitated to take this

class, I have to tell you though that I really enjoyed it. I have

learned how to make fantastic backgrounds using nothing really

out of the ordinary. I have also learned that I can do girly stuff too.

Christy Tomlinson is just so fun to watch as she creates, I highly

recommend the class. It is being run again in just a couple of
weeks so go here and sign up for it now. I had such a great time
with it that I have signed up for her next class which is going to be

about art journaling, that is also on the link in case you are interested :)

Catch up post...

2011-03-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

My kids are on Spring Break this week so we went away for about 5
days to California for a mini vacation. Above is the last She Art girl
I finished off before we left. This week is the last week of our class
and I am trying to catch up on all the videos, this class has been so
much fun and just watching Christy create the pieces is amazing.
She is re-running this class in just a few weeks, go here.

We had some really good food whilst we were away, and some
really delicious desserts, evidence above:)

We went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market on Sunday, a huge outdoor
flea market that is held every month on the 2nd Sunday of the
month. We went a few years ago and decided it may be fun to go
again. There are new items for sale, old items, vintage clothes,
used clothes, you name it and you will find it there. I was really
hoping to find some fun things to use in my art but did not find
anything this time. I did however see the sign pictured above and
knew that I had to have it!

When I got home I had a small package waiting for me that I
wasn't expecting. A blog friend of mine had very kindly offered
to send me some "To Dye For" which is used in the Melting Pot
with UTEE. I was expecting a bottle but she sent me a whole
package of them, yay! She also sent me a really nice copper
leafing pen, must try that out as I do not have one of those.
However the best thing is the tag, can you see that fabulous
piece of art that she made, just gorgeous. I have been following
Lori's blog for quite a while now and she makes the most
incredible pieces, and lots of them too, go and check out her art.
Thanks so much Lori for all the goodies and for your wonderful
tag, so happy that you made that for me:)

CCC Week 35...

2011-03-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

Well here we are at the end of our journey doing the Compendium
of Curiosities challenge... It has been such a fun thing to join in on
and I would like to thank the lovely Linda for coming up with this
idea and putting so much time into it. I have heard that she has
something else up her sleeve to be announced on Monday, looking
forward to hearing what it is.

This is my entry above, I used the new Ranger Distress stains to

do the background, they are fabulous for covering grunge board,

got to get some more of them. I had several attempts at trying

to use wire on this but was having a hard time so resorted to

my trusty Tiny Attacher. I was actually going to put on my

little strip "I enjoyed the journey" but that would not fit on my

card in one line. Linda, I did truly enjoy this journey with you

and thanks so much for doing it:)

She Art Workshop...

2011-03-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show off my first 2 finished "She Art" pieces.
The one in the dress was my first one and although I like it I
much prefer the second one I did. Maybe it is the fact that she is
in pants and not a dress, I am so not a dress person! I would live
in my jeans year round if it wasn't so hot here in the summer.

Anyway I am amazed at what I have produced with these two
pieces. Honestly I was more interested in learning the background
techniques than making the girls when I signed on for this class.
However I have to say that these girls are kind of cute, and there
are tons of them in our class Flickr group.
Christy Tomlinson is really doing a great class, tons of video
instructions, now in High Def and some really up close video
of what she is doing. Also lots of up close pictures given to
us in PDF files, several pictures of each of the projects.
She is going to re-run the class again so if you are interested then
go here to take a look.

Art journal pages etc...

2011-03-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with this art journal page I did last week:) I cannot
explain it but it just speaks to me right now. It seems that almost
every time I do a new page in this particular journal it then
becomes my favourite. This one though just makes me smile every
time I see it, I have even thought about having a larger poster
printed from it and placing it somewhere that I can see it every
day. Not sure what the rest of my family will think as I am the only
female, lol!

Here is the first page from the small journal I made at one of
Kelly's classes last month. Usually when I make a new art journal
I never do the first page of my journal in class, in fact in the
journal above it is still blank! I am not sure why, but I think that
I feel the first page has to be great and so I put it off. I decided
this week that I need to get over that and do the first pages of
my journals, 4 out of 5 are now done, just that one left to do
- maybe this week:)

This week I started an online class that is really a completely

different thing for me, really a little out of my comfort zone. I

started the She Art workshop. It is actually quite fun to learn

new techniques for making backgrounds and background textures

but I am not so sure about making the actual "she" part of this.

These are my first 2 in progress, I am waiting on a couple of

supplies I need before I can continue on with them. I was very
happy with my backgrounds but all the decisions involved in

what to make the girl look like was a long process. I am hoping

to get them done in the next couple of days as the next lesson

will start tomorrow. I am lucky that my good friend Lisa is also

taking this class and we got together on Friday to work on them.

Art is always more fun when you can share it with someone

who understands:)

CCC Week 34...

2011-03-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

So here we are at the next to last challenge, so sad that this will be
coming to an end. Although Linda who has been hosting this
challenge did say that there would be a special announcement
next week when the final challenge is posted, ooh could there be another challenge?

Well this challenge was not too technical or difficult but I always
seem to have issues with making small collages. Everything had to
be flat to fit under the fragment so that is kind of limiting. I also
changed my background paper as the original one I chose did not
fit with my travel theme. However, I now think my background is
a little busy, which is not me at all. If you hadn't noticed I am
usually more plain and simple in my style. Still it is done and
now I can move on to other art projects.
Hope everyone has an art filled week :)

What I have been doing...

2011-02-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well I have still been trying to take things easy so cannot spend
too long bent over my art desk, had to do these in stages. I am
really happy with the fact that I have about 5 different art journals
that I am working in at the same time. They are different shapes
and sizes so if I want to work smaller then I get my small journal
out, if I want to have a background already painted then I have a
journal that has pages already painted just waiting to be worked
on. This makes it more flexible and more fun.

The page above was in my journal that already had backgrounds
painted. I added some background stamping, some tapes, my
focal image, border sticker, title word and then finally added in
my journaling. I really like how this page all came together.

Now the page above is in one of my journals that is blank, just
waiting to add collage elements, paper, tapes, stamps etc to it. I
had found the image of the girl and knew I wanted to use it, just
took me some time figuring out how to do the background. I got
the fortune the night before and knew it was the perfect thing to
add on my page. I just love this page, sometimes I have pages
that I think are OK and some I just love, this is one of those pages.

CCC Week 33...

2011-02-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well here we are at challenge #33, hard to believe it is almost
over. For all the details please go and visit Linda.

Well even though this seemed like a simple technique it was a little
frustrating. We needed to use alcohol inks and I always have a
problem with the felt on the applicator tool. Does anyone else find
little stringy threads from the felt laying on their project stuck
there with the alcohol ink, or is it just me? The good thing is that
you can wipe it all off and start over but this week it happened
every time, I ended up just pouring the alcohol ink on the metal
heart and letting it dry. Took a while to dry and I can still see those
pesky little threads!
I was going to do more metal but decided to leave it as is before I
had enough. I used a Gelly Roll Stardust pen on the card but it
really does not photograph well. I love using it as it does look ever
so shiny and sparkly in real life.

CCC Week 32...

2011-02-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post for the challenge over on Linda's blog. I finally
found time to work on it today. Has been a strange week here,
still trying to take it easy due to my back and had to take my
boys to a couple of appointments this week.
Yesterday my oldest son had to go in and have his wisdom teeth
out, it was a long day yesterday! Poor thing has never undergone
anaesthesia before and then had a bad reaction to the pain
medication so was in quite a lot of pain until we got that sorted
out. Fortunately he is feeling a little better today but hardly eating anything.

Well as for this week's challenge, this is actually my second
attempt at it. I did have time a few days ago but absolutely
hated what I did to the point that I tore it into pieces! Thought
if I left it for a few days I may have another attempt, I definitely
like this a lot better. I have to take it slowly and can only do so
much bending over my desk at a time. As you can see I am still
using tapes - tissue tape, washi tape, you name it I like it!
Hoping for a better week next week:)

A good art day...

2011-02-17T15:55:00.001-07:00

Even though I am still trying to take it easy with my back I still
managed to get together a couple of times with my very good
art friend, Lisa. I managed to get over there for just a couple of
hours last Friday and started the art journal page above. I did
spend just a little while finishing it off over the weekend and
then had to rest up for a while.

Yesterday we had a longer play day and I was able to get a good
start on some pages in my newest Kelly Kilmer journal. This is a
smaller book with lots of flaps and fold outs so a new direction
for me. It is definitely going to be a challenge to figure out how
to use those pages. The page above is the front page when you
open up the journal. Not sure if I will add anything else to it, I
really like it like this.

This page is one that I had mostly done and just added the the
2 items in the middle. A fortune from a fortune cookie on top of
a clothing tag. See you can use just about anything in your art
journal, after all it is your journal so you make the rules:)

This is the last page I worked on yesterday, I just loved this little
guy and found this piece of background paper with elephants on
that was ripped out of a catalog. The sticker at the top was actually
already on the page and it just made me laugh so had to use it.
One of the things that Kelly tells you to do when you first make
your blank journal is to just add random stuff to your blank pages
so you will have something already there when you go back and
start to work in it.

I am so happy that Lisa has started art journaling with me, it is
really fun to get together and make our own art. She even feeds
me lunch, what more could you ask for:)

CCC Week 31...

2011-02-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well I am feeling quite a bit better today, still limiting the amount
of bending and stretching that I am doing, it just feels so good to
not be in constant pain right now.
Anyway down to business, I felt so much better I was able to do
part of this piece yesterday and the second part today. If you want
all the details for the challenge head on over to Linda's blog.

I used the wonderful Wild Honey distress ink as the main colour
for this and then used some new stamps that I just got, they are
designed by Melody Ross for Unity Stamp co. I was also back to
using my favourite tissue tape and washi tapes, boy those tapes
are just addicting as they are so versatile. I am embarrassed to
say I have quite a collection of them now. I have not tried this
week's technique before but am very pleased with how it turned
out. Sad that I didn't do last weeks but maybe when the challenge
ends I will go back and do it so that I have the complete set.

No Compendium Challenge for me this week...

2011-02-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note to let you know what has been happening with me
this last week. Last Friday 28th January I had quite a severe back
injury, wish I could say I did it doing something exciting but no
it was just a normal morning. I was in excruciating pain, could not
sit down, lay down and could barely stand. I had to call my
husband home from work and could not get into my doctor,
there was several hours wait at the emergency room and so we
tried going to a Chiropractor. I was examined, x-rayed and given
a very painful back massage then sent home to rest and ice my
back. Nothing much changed over the weekend and so my
husband got me into my regular doctor Monday morning. She
gave me lots of different medicines, some heavy duty painkillers
and again told me to rest but now I could use heat on my back,
thank goodness! those ice packs are not for me:)

So I have been pretty much out of it and out of commission for the
week, just totally exhausted and trying to move without
re-injuring myself. No laundry has been done and I am taking this
weekend to try and rest more so hopefully I can do a little more next week.

I have heard this week of so many people who hurt their backs so
severely doing just normal everyday things, it is just amazing that
this can happen and how it can affect everything you do. My
husband and family have really been tremendous this week, I
cannot imagine being like this with no help. Looking forward to
a better week next week so I can go and make some art!

One Little Word Blog Hop...

2011-02-01T09:00:00.007-07:00

Hello and welcome to my blog, I am hoping you got here from the

link from Amy at http://reflectivesnapshots.com. We are all doing
this little blog hop to see how we are all doing with our own
One Little Word so far this month. The blog hop is starting at
8am PST today, 1st February. This is a project that Ali
Edwards has been doing for herself for several years and has
created the class, which you can link to from the button on my
sidebar, to help reinforce the word throughout the year for her
and anyone else who is choosing a word. Above is my title photo
for the month of January.

The page above is our prompt for January, this explains all about
our word and why we chose the word that we did. I am still not
sure if I am finished decorating this page, I thought I would leave
it for a while and see what I thought later.

I have written a little about my word choice on an earlier blog
post. I chose the word "BE" as it really can mean so much for
me to get through some changes that will be happening in my
life this year.

I found that this word has been popping up in other areas and so I

know that this word was the right word for me to focus on this year.

An example is this quote above, I had pulled this page out of a

magazine a couple of years ago and filed it in my inspiration file.

Strangely enough I was looking through that file just last week and

saw it. I am going to include it in my binder for the class to remind

me of this great quote.

Now you know a little about me and my word please go and visit
Maureen at http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com.

In case you have got lost along the way or do not know how to visit all of the
people participating in this, here is the list of blogs to visit:

1) Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com

2) Jill Conyers http://jillconyers.typepad.com/life_as_i_see_it/

3) Monica http://scraplifters.blogspot.com

4) Lynn W http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

5) Miranda http://mirandasscrapsite.blogspot.com

6) Mandy http://captureandcreate.wordpress.com

7) Kathy http://katswonderings.blogspot.com

8) Lisa http://makeyourownescape.blogspot.com

9) Donna http://donnabryantdurand.blogspot.com

10) Abbey http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/

11) Sam http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/

12) April http://capturethememories.blogspot.com

13) Nicky http://seejanebake.blogspot.com

14) Rebekah http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

15) Relly http://rel.ly

16) Nancy http://goshery.blogspot.com

17) Cynthia http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/

18) Kathryn http://katlodesigns.com

19) Nikki http://inkyart.com.au

20) Heather http://scrappyhare.blogspot.com

21) Gayle www.lifeonlilypadlane.blogspot.com

22) Kristina http://ciqis.blogspot.com

23) Debra http://blakleyhomeplace.blogspot.com

24) Becky http://beckyandjames.com

25) Amy http://reflectivesnapshots.com

26) Marlene http://moore-fun-in-the-sun.blogspot.com/

27) Maureen http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com

28) Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

29) Monica Scrapmom http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

30) Jan http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com

31) Junelle http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com

32) Margaret http://www.gutsymom.blogspot.com

33) Sharyn http://www.analteredlife.com

34) Tere http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

CCC Week 29...

2011-01-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

So here we are with another week of the challenge, for this week's
details please go and visit Linda's blog.
I think I have tried this technique before but it never quite looks
like the examples shown when I do it! I used the texture fade that
kind of looks like a cracked piece of glass, hard to tell I know.
I had the idea of using a heart and doing something about a broken
heart going with the cracked background. I could not find any
stamps or sayings that went with that so just decided to forget about that.

Still not sure what I will do with all my cards yet. I have had a lot
of good suggestions just not sure what will work. Hope everyone
has a creative week this week. I have a lot of projects to catch up
on so hopefully will get a good start on those.

Re-vamped laundry room...

2011-01-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

As promised here are pictures of our now finished laundry room
re-model. I know it doesn't sound very exciting and probably
doesn't look it either but we are very happy with the changes.
These are the new base cupboards we put in. We just had regular
cupboards here before.
We added in the tall cupboard at the end you can just about see in
the photo. We re-used the counter top that we had, my husband
took it out moved everything along to get the new tall cupboard
in then we put in the drawer cupboards and amazingly the counter
top we had fit perfectly. We had to get all the handles of course
and they work so well to pull open the long drawers.

Here is a peek inside the middle 2 drawers. I have all my paints,
mists, spray paints and brushes in one and in the other drawer
the supplies are grouped into different boxes, I have to label them yet.

This is a close up of my paint and mist drawer. I LOVE this!!! no
more kneeling on the floor and pulling out 2 or 3 containers to
get to the one I want, this just makes me so happy - obviously
I am easily amused!

This is one of the smaller top drawers that is above my paint
drawer. I had no idea that I had that many containers of Gesso
and gel mediums, hanging my head in shame :) I am blaming
it on the fact I had lots of different bins and boxes and did not
know what I had :) I do also have a lot of UTEE powders in
there but I have to tell you that those jars are only half full.
A few months ago my friend Lisa and I got into using the Melting
Pot and she got all the colours of UTEE powder and we split them
between us, see I am not that bad!

Now I have no excuse when it comes to creating as everything is
now in order and very easy to access. This has definitely got my
year off to a great start :)

CCC Week 28...

2011-01-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are at week 28 of this challenge, cannot believe we have
all been on this journey that long. For all the details of this week's
challenge please go and see the lovely Linda. There have been
quite a few of the challenges where I do not have the main
ingredient or tool and have had to improvise, and this week was
one of those weeks. I did not have the required tool to do the
technique and so I improvised with a paint brush. It was a bit
fiddly to do and I think I may have ruined the brush!

I also used one of the Tim Holtz Sizzix texture fades to make the
background and boy do they emboss!! I need to use these more
often. The stamps I used were from a set by Wendy Vecchi which
has a lot of eyes and I really love the stamps. Again something
else I need to use more often.

I feel like I am behind this week as we spent part of the long
weekend trying to finish off the improvements in our laundry
room. My husband put down laminate flooring in there, will
do a little post about it soon.
I am looking forward to how easy it is going to be for me when I
want to get my paints and spray inks out and get all messy in there.
No more pulling out 5 boxes from the cupboard to get to the one
that I want, sounds like heaven :)

CCC Week 27...

2011-01-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well here we are at Week 27 of the challenge, for details of this
week's challenge please go over to Studio L3. This week I had
some issues with the technique not showing up too well, this
is my 2nd attempt at it! Luckily I just flipped over my card and
used the other side, I really hate wasting things :)

I am not sure if it was because of the issues but I did not really
feel the mojo with this week's challenge. I also have started a
couple of online classes and one of them is definitely going to
be intense so maybe that is why.

My family have gone off to a Klondike Derby in the cold regions of
Arizona, and yes we do have some cold areas here, lol! I am
looking forward to having tomorrow to be able to play catch up
with some of my projects and hopefully will get more creative.
What are you up to this holiday weekend?

Inspiration places...

2011-01-10T20:40:00.001-07:00

First I want to say thank you to all the people who have either left
me comments or e-mailed me about my last art journal pages that
I posted. I truly appreciate all the wonderful comments. The thing
about art journaling is that it is all about playing with your art
supplies, trying out things for the first time, experimenting with
new ideas and just having fun. It is all kept in a journal and if you
want, only you can look at it. I have been interested in art
journaling for over a year now but have not done as much as I
would like, I am hoping to change that this year.

I would like to tell you a few of my inspiration places for art
journaling. First, the inspiration for the page I just did tonight
which is pictured above. I found Milliande last year, I am not sure
how I found her site but she had lots of videos out on You Tube.
She was doing something she called Art Journal January, she
wanted to see how long she could last doing an art journal page
a day for the month. She has been persuaded to do it again
this year and my page is based on her prompt for Day 9.

Other places of inspiration are Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, who started
the year with something called Art Journal Every Day which I
signed up for. I am not really making it every day but that is OK.
I also like the styles of Dina Wakley and Teesha Moore although
I cannot make pages like them.

If you are interested in trying art journaling go and check these
out, and if you find anyone that you like please let me know so
I can go and check them out too :)

What's your word???

2011-01-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

I think that a lot of people will know what I am talking about

with this question, but for those that do not then please visit
Ali Edwards blog to find out all about it. It is something
she has done for about 4 or 5 years now and I tried to do it
last year but it only lasted about a week, oops!

Anyway I really wanted to do it and I signed up to take her class

at Big Picture Classes. Turns out my friend also signed up and she

is actually doing this with her husband so they chose a word together.

I thought that I knew what I wanted my word to be, but the more I

thought about it, the more I knew it was not really the word to
concentrate on. I went over to my friend Lisa's house to have a
brainstorming session and to do some art journaling. Well I did
start the page above at her house but did not finish it until today.

Yesterday I finally found my word for 2011, today I decided to do

another art journal page that was for my word. Here it is :

There are going to be some changes happening for me this year,
the major one is my oldest son will be leaving for college :(
Also my youngest will be able to go and get his Learner's Permit,
ooh scary. So without getting all sad and depressed I thought that
this word would help me by BEing open to change, BE positive,
BE ready to try new things, BE there to listen, and amongst many
more things BE ready to let go...

So have you picked your One Little Word for this year?

CCC Week 26...

2011-01-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

A new year and a new Compendium Challenge, go over to
Linda's blog to find out what it is all about.

This week's technique is another new one for me. I did not
have the correct colour of distress embossing powder so
had to use a different one, but I think it turned out just fine.
I actually managed to do this one without any mishaps,
maybe it is just what I needed to get back into the creative
groove, so to speak.

I have not had much creative time the last week or so as we
have been doing a re-model of our laundry room. The good
thing is that I am now hopefully going to get to my paints
and craft supplies without having to take every box out of
the cupboard to get to the one I want. I am seeing a blog post
about this in the future...

Finished my sketchbook!!!

2010-12-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

I have really worked hard this week to get my sketchbook
finished for The Sketchbook Project. I am so glad that I made
this effort to get it finished before the end of the year. Above
is my front cover, just wanted something simple as a title
and to cover up some areas that had got over spray on them.

Here is one of my last few sets of pages, getting less creative
at this point because I really just wanted to finish it up. I
really did not want to send it back with any empty pages in it.
As it was I glued the pages together in sets of 2 as the paper
was just so incredibly thin. It still was hard to do inks and
paints on it so had to come up with alternatives.
On the 2 spreads where I did use some light sprays of ink the
pages really warped and buckled.

So this is my last page, kind of sums up the whole theme of
how I did my book. I did get a couple of suggestions for the
last few pages, one from my husband and one from my son.

I am glad I was able to participate in this huge project, for
information about the traveling exhibit check here.

So now that is over what is in store for the new year ? I have

signed up to take Ali Edwards class One Little Word. I am

about 90% sure of the word I will be focusing on. Also I

have signed up to follow Julie Fei-Fan Balzer do this.

So excited to say that she actually featured me on one of the

blogs for inspiration in her post today, that has really made

my day :) If you scroll down to the M's you will see my blog

with one of my cards I did for the Compendium of Curiosities
challenge earlier this year.

Well I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I am
all excited to have some creative projects ready for 2011.
What do you have planned to be creative this new year?

CCC Week 25...

2010-12-29T10:22:00.001-07:00

I have taken a break from blogging and making art for the
last week or so due to having nice quiet family time. My
oldest son turned 18 just before Christmas so that was
where a lot of my attention was going, hard to believe
how quickly time goes by...
Now to getting back to art and creativity. I finally managed
to find some time to do this challenge, for all the details go
and visit Linda. This was a fun technique that I had not tried
before, however it is definitely easy to overdo the alcohol ink
part, I definitely did! My base colours were not red, that was
the alcohol ink. I do like how it turned out though, just not
quite the colours I started with. Hard to see on the photo but
I used the clear glitter Gelly Roll pen to go around the stars
and it looks lovely in person.
The other thing I have been doing this week is desperately
trying to finish off my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project.
It has to be in the mail by Jan 15th so time is running out.
I am getting close to finishing and have made a real effort
over the last week to finish it. I wish I had found out
about it sooner as I only really had a couple of months
to do it in but I am determined to finish it and send in a full sketchbook.

Shadow box fun...

2010-12-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have been lucky enough to take 2 classes with
Mike & Lesley this month. The first class was up at Frenzy
Stamper at the beginning of the month. We got to make this
really cool shadow box using some fabulous old dictionary
papers. I loved embossing all the gear die cuts for the top
of the box, they have some fabulous embossing powders
to choose from. I did not finish mine during the class but
managed to get time this week to finish it at home, I actually
prefer doing it like this so I can take my time and get to
see if I have any things from my collection to add to it.

This second shadow box was at a class last weekend at a
different store, Paper Vineyard. My friend Michelle came in
from Oregon to visit me and we took the class together.
We had a lot of fun with this class and learned how to stamp
on things that are round, in this case it was the wooden
spools that are the feet on the box.

I again finished this off at home and changed mine up quite
a lot from the sample. I really enjoy taking classes with Mike
and Lesley as they provide all supplies and we always learn
some new techniques. Now if only I could stop from getting
super glue on my fingers it would be even better!!

Yesterday a teenager, today an adult...

2010-12-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

Today a very special someone is turning 18!! Happy Birthday
Alex!! This is one of my favourite pictures of you taken on
vacation in Hawaii in the summer of 2005.

I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by this year,
and it won't be too long before he leaves for college. We are
trying to make the most of our family time together and we
have been documenting his senior year by taking a Picture A
Day, something I had done for all of 2008 and 2009 but
wanted a rest this year. However Alex likes looking back on
those albums so much he asked if I would keep doing it.
Eventually, back in August, we decided to do it but not as
a calendar year but a school year. I know that this will be
something we will look at over and over, remembering things
that made us happy and sad - just us living our daily lives.

Last 2 tags...

2010-12-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

So sad to be finished with the tags :( It has been fun
checking out Tim's blog every morning and having that
burst of creativity. This is tag 11, again I had to make
substitutions but I think it came out pretty close to Tim's
example. For this tag he showed a really great way to
get more use out of your dies, using them to make your
own foam stamps. However as I do not have the
die he used to make the stamp I improvised by just using a
stamp I already had. I will definitely have a go at making my
own stamps though, it is a really great idea.

This is the last tag, #12, for this year's 12 Tags of Christmas.

Yet again I did not have the die that was used but was able
to use my Cricut machine to cut something similar out and
still did the technique that Tim showed.

Now that I have all 12 tags done I am trying to decide how
to show them off. I have all of last year's tags clipped on a

7 Gypsies ATC & photo display seen here. I still love the tags

from last year and do not want to take them down so need to

be creative. Just wondering what other people are doing...

Caught up, for now anyway...

2010-12-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a quick post just to get all my tags up for
everyone to see. This one is tag 6 from Tim Holtz's blog of
the 12 Tags of Christmas. I did not have the embossing folder
or die he used so found a stamp for the trees and actually had
a grunge board deer! I think this one came out pretty good
for improvising.

This one is tag 7 and I love the technique that Tim showed
for inking up the embossing folder before running the tag
through it so it came out already inked. I like the idea of the
flower using canvas and grunge paper but my flowers never
come out great, I cannot get any curl in the petals - must be
my lack of body heat, lol!

Tag 8 is just gorgeous! I love the simplicity and classiness
of this tag. I did not have the gold Perfect Pearl mist but had
one called Sunflower so used that and I love how rich the
colour looks. I think this one is my favourite so far.

This is tag 9 and was a fun technique but took a lot of time,
we did double or even triple masking on this and it looks fabulous.

This is tag 10, which was really quick to do for me today. Tim
used a snowman die on his and again I did not have it, I
seem to be lacking anything snowman related as I had
this problem last year with one of the tags. So I had to repeat
my substitution that I used last year which is my favourite
stamp of all time, the umbrella man.
I used him in place of a snowman stamp last year and even
added a red scarf to him then too! Not sure if you can see
the texture of the snowflakes in the photo but we used left
over plastic packaging to create this. Another fabulous
techcnique from Tim, I love that he does these tags and
shows us new ways to use things that we never would
have thought of.

So much for a quick post! My friend Michelle is arriving this
evening for a quick weekend visit so I won't be doing the
last 2 tags until next week. Thanks for making it this far :)

Finally Five...

2010-12-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

...Tag #5 that is. Finally managed to finish this one off today,
now I only have 6,7 and 8 to start, lol!

The thing I love about the 12 Tags is that you are shown a
tag by Tim Holtz and then you are inspired to create with
what you have. Well I do have to say that sometimes you
may feel that you need one of the supplies he mentions, but
really it is fun to work with what you have.

I will admit that last year I did not have any of his Christmas
stamps so when I saw his Mini Holiday 2 set I knew I had to
get them in time for this years tags. I am doing my best to
not buy anything major for these but have gone out to get a
couple of little things.

Now I am off to go and start the next one...

Tags 3 & 4...

2010-12-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

I am trying to catch up with the 12 Tags of Christmas and
finally finished tags 3 & 4 seen above. It has been really
busy here the last few days and I haven't even started on
my December Daily project yet!!

The good and bad of these tags is that I found the tissue tape
flower on tag 3 a real pain to do, my tape just did not seem to
stick and kept coming off, had to re-do it and then glue it all
together. It looked so much fun and so easy to do, not sure if
I will attempt it again.

Now the Tim Holtz Facet that was part of the technique for
tag 4 was something I thought would not work for me but
amazingly it did!!
I love the effect of using alcohol ink to do a resist. If you
have no idea what on earth I am talking about then
go here and read all the details from Tim himself.

Hoping that I can get tags 5 & 6 done tomorrow and
then I will only be a day behind :)

12 Tags of Christmas Day 2...

2010-12-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well here is my attempt at Day 2. I like this one much better
than my tag from yesterday. This tag went very quickly once
I had found the one supply you needed for this that I did not
have. I drove all over today and went to 5 stores to find this.
I needed the felt one not the foam one as the technique Tim
shared today was to make your own custom coloured stamp
pad, the foam does not work for this. All I can say is that
once I had the Cut n' dry felt it was all easy going.

If you want to see Tim's tag for today go here. There was a
great Wow factor for me after doing the custom colour ink
pad. It just opens up a whole world of possibilities. I used
5 different inks on the Cardinal that I stamped, not sure if
you can tell that but it came out just beautifully.

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's tag will bring!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas...

2010-12-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

I was so excited that Tim Holtz was going to do the 12 tags
again this year. I played along last year for the first time and
had so much fun doing it, if you want to join in go here.
Today was Tag No.1, after fiddling around this evening trying
to finish it off - it got changed a couple of times! This is my
final effort, not really 100% happy with it but I am calling it done.

I knew it would be difficult this year as he has brought out so
many new products this year and I do not have many of
them. Although part of the fun of this is to improvise and
use it as a creative jump start. Still when you are struggling
to do the main pieces of it then it is not quite so much fun.

CCC Week 23...

2010-11-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well here we are at week 23 of the challenge, please go and
visit Studio L3 for all the details. The challenges are now
going to be every 2 weeks during the holiday season, I
think that is a good idea with everyone being really busy
right now.

This week's challenge is Double Distress, don't forget you need
the book to play along. This is a technique I have not really
done much of and was worried about overdoing the inking
to the point you could not see the original colours I started
with. Still I did my best to not overdo it and here is my
finished piece. The Umbrella Man is my favourite stamp and
so I have been trying to not use him too much during this
challenge, I think I have been successful with that so far but
we still have 13 more challenges to go, lol!

I wish all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you
have fun spending time with your family.

Back to art journaling...

2010-11-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took a class with Kelly Kilmer at
the Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ. This is the book that
I made although I did not do the front cover there just made
the book completely from scratch and learned a fun new
binding too! If you ever get the chance to take a class with
Kelly I highly recommend it, she is so creative, very helpful
and is very hands on. This is the second class I have taken
with her and I loved the book I made in the first class too.
Now all I need to do is actually start working in them!

This book is different than the first one as we are not painting
the inside pages, we are using collage in it with papers,
images, washi tapes etc. This page above I actually started
in the class but added the doodling and journaling at home.
It is going to be interesting working in the 2 books and seeing

which I prefer.

This last page I did in yet another art journal that I am
working in. The background was already painted and I
just wanted to "do" something to be creative, you know
how that goes right? Well now I am getting back into
the art journaling groove I really want to keep it up.

CCC Week 22...

2010-11-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well here it is the first day of this week's challenge over at
Linda's blog and I already completed it!

Again I did not have the required "tool" and had to make do
using Linda's suggestion. I am sure that it made a difference
as I can see it myself from the other photos posted. Oh well,
will have to go and buy it and try it again. I also had issues
stamping on top of the glossy card stock, I have noticed
before that stamps tend to stick to the surface and you do
not get a good imprint, had to stamp some parts of my bird
a couple of times. Anyway I love how colourful it looks and
now I have to wait a whole week for the next challenge,
what am I going to do until then??

CCC Week 21...

2010-11-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here we are at week 21, hard to believe it is going by so fast.
Hop on over to Linda's blog to get all the information about
this week's technique.

This week's technique is one of the few from the book that I
have don before and is one that usually turns out great. Glad
to say that I had no problems this week, in fact was one of
the quickest ones I have done.

This week all of the stamps I used were Tim Holtz stamps. I
used the wrinkle free distress for the background using
Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage and Crushed Olive Distress Inks.
I really love it when something just comes together with
no problems, don't you?

December Daily...

2010-11-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

I love following Ali Edwards blog and seeing all the great
projects that she comes up with. One that she has been
doing for the last few years is the December Daily, to see
how she is doing it this year go here.

I did it last year for the first time and really love looking back
on the 25 day run up to Christmas. I decided I would do it
again this year and the picture above is of my album that I
put together ready to start working in. It is actually a small
binder that measures 7"W x 9"H, I loved how Ali was doing
hers this year so based mine on that, my inside pages are
6"x8" so this binder is perfect for this. I had mentioned to
Melinda, the fabulous photographer, about this and she
decided to do it too.
In fact it was when I was picking up my photos from her
that she showed me a small little binder she had found
in her office that she was going to use for this. I loved
that idea and found something similar at an office supply store.

The picture below is my album from last year before I started

working in it. It is an 8"x8" size that is all random sizes and

shapes inside. I used 2 pieces of acrylic for the front and back

covers and some binding rings to hold it all together. It is

definitely more eclectic and fun but I really liked the more

simple style for this year.

Is there anyone else that is going to do this project this year?
It was definitely a worthwhile album for me but you have to
keep on top of things. This is why preparing as much as
possible in advance is the best way to get it done. Take a look
at Ali's posts about this project and think about doing it too.

CCC Week 20...

2010-11-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

So hard to believe that over on Linda's blog we are up to week
20, go visit her to find out all the details of this week's challenge.

This one actually was one of the quickest challenges for me,
as in I did not spend ages pondering over what to do. I did
not have one of the tools that was mentioned in the technique
so just made do with what I had on hand.

I decided I wanted to use metal tape for the wings but that
stuff is always so hard to photograph as it is so reflective,
didn't come out too bad though.

I also have decided that I need to get myself some more
quote/sayings kind of stamps, as every week I am going
through my limited supply trying to find something that
will work for the project. Any one have good

suggestions as to where I can find some good sayings?

Life...

2010-11-01T19:42:00.001-07:00

Well I hope everyone enjoyed the Halloween weekend, we
had rather a strange visitor last night, apparently he is an
urban legend (although my husband and I have not heard
of him), Slender Man. Some kind of scary phenomenon that
teenage boys know about.

A while ago I posted some photos of various pots and vases
that my son had made in his high school ceramics class, here
are some of the latest ones he has brought home. He is now
going for "big" pots, not easy to see but these are quite a lot
bigger than the previous ones. We have amassed a rather
large collection of pots, in fact they are taking over our kitchen!
Need to come up with something creative to do with them all.

I feel that recently I have only had time to post my
challenges for the Compendium of Curiosities. Life has
been busy here, mostly we have been doing lots of
things to do with finding a college for our oldest, visiting
them, going to financial planning meetings, reading all
sorts of stuff. Then deciding and applying, and the hardest
part just waiting to hear back. I am happy to say that we
finally got a letter last Thursday that he had been accepted
to the school he wanted to go to, now it is all about paying out money!

We are happy that he won't be too far away but he will be far
enough that he will have a real college experience away from
his parents.

Thanks for sticking with me so far, just a brief update on life
here. One more thing is that I finally had some family
portraits taken, the first time in 14 years! I am so happy to
have had photos taken that reflect this time in our lives. I
was one of the lucky winners last May on Becky Higgins
Big Photography Giveaway. I won a session with
Melinda Kolker, she was wonderful to work with and took
some great pictures of us. She really captured the essence
of our family and the relationship between our 2 boys, I am
absolutely in love with the pictures she took. If you have a
minute or two please look at this slide show she put together for me.

CCC Week 19...

2010-10-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here we are at week 19 of the Compendium Challenge, this
week's technique is called Extreme Masking, get all the
details over at Studio L3.

This was a good week as I had no issues, no mistakes to cover
up, no starting again from scratch, yay! I even went with
colours that I do not usually use, I am more a blue and
green person, but I love how this all turned out in the end.

I used a little Wild Honey, Barn Door and Rusty Hinge for
the distress inks.

The mask is an old one of Heidi Swapp's and the added
butterfly is one from Jenni Bowlin. Most of the stamps
are from Tim Holtz, I have no idea where I got the little
saying from that I used at the top, just found it floating
around in my drawer of small acrylic stamps.

I need to get more storage for my cling mount and acrylic
stamps, but some of them like the one above are really
small so they ended up in a small drawer. What does
everyone else do with their smaller stamps that don't

really belong to any set, just odds and ends?

A couple more pages...

2010-10-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Well I seemed to have had a bit of inspiration for my
Sketchbook Project theme last week so thought I would
share a couple of pages. This page above I tried doing
lettering with some brush pens and coloured the
background with Prismacolor Pencils. I love the vision
stamp that I found in one of the dollar bins at Michaels
and have been waiting to find a page that I could use it on.

With this page I just got an idea and tried to find something
that would work for it. I remembered that I had bought some
paper that was kind of high tech looking and managed to find it.
The bottom half is the paper and then I used a really cute
deco tape and did some stamping at the top.

I seemed to be on a roll for a while with ideas for my pages
but now I feel a little stuck again. I know that I am going to
incorporate a clock of some kind on each spread but now I
need to come up with some new inspiration, I am still open to suggestions...

CCC Week 18...

2010-10-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well we are officially halfway through the Compendium of
Curiosities challenge. If you have just found my blog and
do not know what I am talking about please go to visit
Linda and you can see what it is all about and hopefully
can join in the fun.

Now I am sure some of you are looking at my entry for this
week and saying "that doesn't look right", I can assure you
I followed the steps on page 37 exactly. I tried it first with
white but my stamp (and I really wanted to use this stamp),
just did not show up and I ended up rubbing away the top
layer of the card stock!
So I started again and used black instead, still followed all
the steps but it does not have the exact same effect as it
would have with white. Sometimes you just get an idea of
the things you want to use and you have to make it work.
The stamps are all by Unity Stamp Co. and the little piece of
map in the corner is the fabulous new deco tape that I found
at Etsy. These tapes are becoming my new addiction, I have
quite a few now and I am trying to use them whenever I can
because they are just so cool :)

I was trying to find a deco tape that was of the London
Underground and found the Manhattan subway instead, so if
there is anyone out there that has seen a London
Underground tape please let me know. I would love to
have one, in case you don't know England is my home country.

CCC Week 17...

2010-10-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry for week 17 of the challenge, for all the
details please go and visit the lovely Linda.

I almost did not do this week's challenge as I have been away
with my family to "The Happiest Place on Earth" and just got
home last night. Also I never seem to do well with charms
and thought maybe I would just wait for the new challenge
on Monday.

In the end I decided that I have kept up so far so really
should do it. I won't go into all the details but had a few
errors along the way and spent most of my time trying
to fix them. I even decided to start from scratch but had
an issue with not lining up the paper on my die correctly
so it did not cut out the whole note card, aarghh!
This was when I decided I had to fix the mess I had
made on the first one, so this is it!
Now I am looking forward to seeing the next challenge on Monday.

The Sketchbook Project...

2010-10-05T14:18:00.002-07:00

A    A couple of months ago I foundout about TheSketchbook
      Project, the idea really intrigued me but I wasn't really sure
      about it - I am not a sketcher and I can only draw lines and
th   they aren't usually straight! Anyway on my All Things Tim
Y    Yahoo group a couple of people were talking about it and
I     I got caught up in the excitement of it all so I went ahead
     and signed up.
I     I was so excited to do it and be part of aproject like this but
o    once I received my sketchbook it was a different story. I felt
p    panic! a total brain freeze on how I was going to illustrate
m   my theme. Anyway after asking around for help, and some
p    people did help me, I just decided the best thing to do was
st   start it and see what direction it took me in. Above is the first
2    2 page spread in the book, although I did it after the pages
b    below.

The 2 page spread above is actually the first set of pages Idid,
they were really a learning experience. The pages of the
sketchbook are incredibly thin, I had to glue the pages
together in sets of 2 to make them a little more substantial.
Although it wasn't enough for the use of Adirondack Color
wash spray which I used on the clock page. It wrinkled and
buckled so now I know to not use anything like that, it was
only a very light spray but the paper is just too thin for it.

In case you haven't realised the theme of my sketchbook is

"In 5 minutes..", it really had me puzzled as tohow to tackle
it and even now I am not all that sure what I will do next.
I am still open to suggestions.....

CCC Week 16...

2010-09-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Over at Studio L3 this week we are up to Week 16 of the
Compendium of Curiosities challenge. This week's technique
is a lot of fun as it really seems to come out different than
planned. I used the Distress Ink colours of Crushed Olive,
Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Corduroy for my background.

I also got to use the new Rosette die, which if you haven't
tried it yet, is just so much fun to do. I used a Wendy Vecchi
stamp for the middle of the rosette, just love that eye!
I added a strip of some really cool clear deco tape and
stamped some random circles, attached my saying with

my favourite tool - the tiny attacher :) - if you do not own
this you need to, it is the best stapler ever!

Now back to that Rosette Die from Sizzix. I have seen quite a
few people using it and even though I barely use flowers on
anything I could see the possibilities of this die. It is hard to
find and there is nowhere local to me that has it, I found it
on e-bay, it shipped pretty quickly and arrived on my
doorstep this Saturday. I was so excited to try it out and once
I opened it I realised that you need to have an extended
platform and cutting plates to run it through the Big Kick,
argghh! so disappointed.
I tried to do it just using the regular ones and moving it along
after cutting half of it, well it really did not work that well.
After quite a few attempts at it I knew I would have to get
the extended plates, the next day I was able to find them

at my local Jo-Anns. Well it worked so much better and now
I can make rosettes in one run through the machine and no fudging them!!

Bird revamp...

2010-09-25T11:43:00.001-07:00

So some of you may remember a few months ago that I was

doing a project that gave me lots of grief. No real reason for
it, it just was not going how I had envisioned it. I left it for a
while and finally went back and finished it, that was in May.
I still really wasn't happy with it but I left it alone as I just
did not want to deal with it any more.

This week I had an idea to change the "bird" to a completely
different theme. I got the shadowbox on my desk and
completely dismantled it, totally destroyed the whole thing
apart from the box and the bird. I used an embossing folder
with the spider web and used some coredinations black magic
card stock. After running it through my Sizzix I sanded off
the top layer to reveal the orange colour underneath. I
applied some gesso to my bird and re-painted it. I re-covered
the inside of the box and added a cute little dimensional spider
to the middle of the spider web.

Trying to keep in a similar colour scheme I used some alcohol
inks to re-colour the metal corners on the outside of the box.
I kept this much simpler and added a couple of mirrors on
the inside which makes this very hard to photograph.

Having a glass panel on the front is bad enough but adding
the mirrors to the inside made it almost impossible so I know
these pictures aren't the best but hopefully you can see
enough of it to see the difference.

I am much happier with this version and hopefully can say
that it is done and I will not be re-doing it again!!

CCC Week 15...

2010-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Here we are at week 15 already! time flies when you are having fun :)
Go to Linda's blog to get details of this weeks challenge and
while youhaare there look at all of the great entries that have
already been posted for this week.
I enjoyed the technique but found that I could not stamp on
top of the alcohol inks very well, perhaps I was using the
wrong inks for that?

Anyway I used grunge board as the base, followed by the
technique (it's a secret, if you want to know go and buy
the book). I used some of Tim Holtz tissue tape along the
bottom and then used something new, a Tattered Angels
Foil chip. This has a foil resist on it which when you spray
a mist over it resists the colour, kind of a cool effect.

It is really fun trying all these techniques every week, some I
have done before but I have found more of them that are
new things for me. Thanks to everyone for all the kind
comments along the way and also for the great suggestions
I had on how to display my pieces of art.

Art Happenings...

2010-09-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today I received my confirmation packet for Artfest 2011, I
was lucky to get into my first choice of classes, yay!!

I had heard about Artfest quite a long time ago but always
thought that it was too high a level for me. Well after
meeting lots of art friends through online classes, blogs,
Yahoo groups and the Tim Holtz cruise to Mexico, I realised
that this was something that I could and should do. This
year I attended for the first time with my cabin mate from
the cruise, we have become good friends and art event buddies!
So I am encouraging anyone out there who is interested but
maybe nervous about it, you can do it, go and look at the
website to see the diverse classes that are available.For some reason I am more excited about next year's event
but I am sure that is because now I know what to expect.
I am even pushing myself to learn something new this time.

Another art happening that I decided to join in is
The Sketchbook Project 2011. When I heard about this
project it sounded like a great thing to be involved with and
got really excited about it, so signed up to do it. I was
looking forward to the day my sketchbook arrived, and it
did, about 3 weeks ago. Now that I have it I am at a total
loss as how to start. I have been scouring the internet
looking for some help, I have connected with a couple of
ladies through one of my Yahoo groups who also have not
started theirs yet. The theme of my book is "In 5 Minutes..".

My problem is I don't know how to interpret the theme and
fill a sketchbook about it. I have a couple of ideas but am
not sure if I am going in the right direction, so if anyone

has any insight, suggestions etc on how to approach it

I would love to hear them, pretty please :)

CCC Week 14...

2010-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

This week the challenge over at Linda's blog involved using
Tim Holtz masks. This is one of my favourite techniques
which I have used a lot in the past.
I decided to incorporate one of Heidi Swapp's masks
into this challenge. I wasn't really sure I liked how it looked,
and my original idea kind of went by the wayside. Anyway in
the end I decided that I was not going to re-do it. When I first
started the challenges I decided to use the same die cut shape
throughout, sometimes this can be limiting with it's small
size. I love the shape of this and am now wondering what I
will do with them when the challenge is over.

What is everyone else going to do with theirs ? I know most
people are doing tags, some cards, some book covers, and
some just do a different thing each week. I was originally
thinking I would just punch a hole in the corner of them all
and put them on a binding ring, not sure now what I
will do and am open to suggestions ???

Steampunk fun...

2010-09-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

So what exactly is Steampunk? well according to
Mike Putman who's class I took yesterday this is
the definition :

a form of art that is Victorian, kind of Jules Verne science
fiction that incorporates the steam power of the time,
goggles, hot air balloons, gears, etc. Mike even said it
sometimes can be tied in with the punk era too.

Anyway this is what I made in class, well technically I made
all the parts in class and assembled it this afternoon at home.
This was yet another fun class given by Mike and Lesley
at Paper Vineyard, my nearest scrapbook store. We used
the new Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante line, these papers
are fabulous if you like this style of art. I love the finished

piece but my husband just doesn't get it, lol!

So the other thing that happened yesterday at the store is

that I finally got to meet someone who I have met in the

virtual world, aka blogging! We met whilst taking an online

class all about blogging and have kind of followed each other

and left comments back and forth on our blogs. We really

do not live that far apart but have never got to meet yet.

Well we did yesterday, as Deb and her daughter came over
to the store, so I could pass on a book to her that I did not
need, from reading her blog I knew she was the
perfect person to give it to. The fun thing was that she had
made a little treat for me too, thank you Deb!

Week 13 of the Compendium challenge...

2010-09-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

I am a little later than usual doing this weeks challenge, I
have to confess that when I saw what it was I did not want
to do it. The technique this week is all about grunge paper
flowers, shh! cannot say any more. Anyway I am not
someone who uses flowers and having seen all the lovely
flowers that people have made throughout all of these
challenges I felt intimidated to say the least. Anyway I
decided to "just do it" and this is the result.

I actually started with a different background paper and the
flower did not show up very well. I made the mistake of using
ink colours that were similar to the paper, lol! After I made
the flower I realised I had to find some other paper and
although I liked this paper it was very busy, adding the flower
on top of it made it worse. I added some of Tim Holtz's
tissue tape over the paper (sacrilege I know!) but it helped
a little. I am not sure why my flowers won't stay curled but
believe me I spent a long time curling the petals, so again if
anyone can tell me the best way to do it I would love to know.

Hey Lori are you out there ??? you make lots of flowers so
share the secrets with me please :)

What I have been up to recently...

2010-09-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

First of all I have terrible lighting in my house so have to

always change the colour and lighting in Picasa to get my
pictures to look almost the way they should be, lol! Also
this is the first time I tried the collage function as I did
not want to load photo after photo, obviously I need more
practice at it as it has cut off parts of one of my pictures.

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend Lisa taking a basic
then an advanced Zentangle class at
The Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ. We had an hour break
for lunch and had a really delicious lunch at a place
recommended to us by Debbie the owner of Frenzy Stamper,
just cannot remember the name of it, sorry!
So the picture that got cut off is of some of the Zentangles
we learned yesterday. If you want to know more about this
art form then go here.

The other pictures are of the projects we made at Creative
Escape last weekend. These are the ones that I have now
finished, I still have 3 more to go, hoping to get some more
done tomorrow. As always if you have any questions about
these projects or anything else just ask.

CCC Week 12...

2010-09-01T12:11:00.001-07:00

Well, hard to believe but we are one third of the way through
these challenges.

If you have not made it over to Linda's blog yet, what are you
waiting for? Everyone is having so much fun trying out new
techniques and sharing what they did, please come on over
and try it yourself.

My problem is not the technique but deciding the whole
theme of my card before I even start. That takes me so
long to do and then the technique is the quickest part. This
week's technique I had not tried before and again using
Distress Embossing powder is a challenge for me.

I only have 2 colours and, in fact the only reason I have 2 is
that I had to get a different colour for the previous technique
we did. I am still unsure on when the stuff is heated enough
or not so if anyone is an expert with these powders send me
some tips please.

Anyway I do like how it turned out and will be waiting
eagerly for next Monday to come around so I can do the next challenge.

Look who I met this weekend...

2010-08-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yes none other than the Cricut from Provo Craft!! I have no
idea who was in this outfit but they were very hot, I could
feel the heat just standing next to them. Provo Craft were
one of the sponsors for Creative Escape this weekend and
were making everyone happy with the Cricut mascot
showing up in all sorts of places.

This is the lovely gift that was left for each participant in their
rooms on Friday night. Not sure if you can see but we all
received a Pound of Paper from Bazzill Basics Paper, a
custom set of Creative Escape Glimmer Mist colours,
a gorgeous bracelet that was made in this year's CE colours
of Turquoise, Black and Silver, a Quilting Arts magazine and
a Fairytale Brownie - if you have never tasted one of these
they are heavenly :)

Here I am with Claudine Hellmuth at the meet the teacher
trunk show.
This event happens on Thursday and you get to meet all of
the teachers and see some of their work on display.

I had a wonderful time there this year, it was better than last
year but I have really enjoyed all 4 of the ones that I have
attended. We had some projects that were a little ambitious
but we have a fabulous book that has photos and instructions
for all of the projects so that we can finish them off at home.
We got to make a gorgeous necklace with
Margie Romney-Aslett, and had a photography lesson with
Maggie Holmes.
We also made a really cute album with Teresa Collins, and
got to try out the Cinch machine from We R Memory Keepers.
There were also great projects with Pam Black, Trisha
Ladouceur, Jessica Sprague and of course Heidi Swapp. The
event ended Saturday night with a delicious dinner that
started with dessert first - a tradition of Creative Escape.
There were tons and tons of raffle prizes given away, a live
auction to win some of the fabulous mirrors that were
created by teachers past and present and then a talk by
the key note speaker, Jaimee Rose.

It was a weekend of making new friends, meeting up with old
friends and sharing the passion of creating and saving our
memories in ways that are meaningful to us.
Looking forward to being there again next year...

Compendium Challenge Week 11...

2010-08-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge up on Linda's blog is something I have
never done before. All I can say is that I love, love, love this
technique and cannot wait to do it again.

It is called Blended Batik and that is all I can tell you, so if
you have not got the book yet go and get it so that you can
try this and all of the other wonderful techniques that are in there.

I honestly didn't think this would work first time for me, I

usually have issues, but this worked like a charm. If I can do

it then anyone can :)

I used Stormy Sky distress ink to colour it and 2 different
Japanese masking tapes that came in a set. Sorry I do
not know what it is called but I am pretty sure I got them
from Etsy.

I am leaving early Thursday morning to meet my friend and

then we are off to Creative Escape. Will report back after the

event, looking forward to having fun and making some
fabulous projects!

Can't stop melting...

2010-08-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

and no, not because I live in Arizona!! although it has been
hotter than heck here this week. After taking a class the other
month with the wonderful Mike and Lesley I have finally
broken my melting pot out of it's box. I bought it after
watching a DVD that I got called "The Journey Continues"
with Tim Holtz.
Now it must have been a year and a half ago at least but I
was very intimidated by it, really the likelihood that I would
burn myself is what has put me off. Well not any more, lol!
I went over to my friend Lisa's earlier this week and the
photo above is what I made there after only being there a
couple of hours. This was done by melting clear UTEE
(Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and then adding in different
UTEE colours. We had so much fun doing this that when I
got home I dug out the DVD and watched some of it again.

This led me to another project which Tim demoed on the
DVD, picture below.

This project was title Glazed Mosaics, and although mine are
not quite as good as Tim's I am very happy with the results.

So my next step was to find video's by Suze Weinberg who is
the queen of melt art. I found one where she made a whole
bunch of tiles and used them to decorate a plain mirror. I was
really keen to try this but had to go out and purchase a
silicone ice cube tray for this project. Well I finally found one
and this morning I made these:

So now the question is what am I going to do with all
of these ?? Well I am not exactly sure myself but I think
they will be added on to some of my art projects. Right
now I am just enjoying trying out something new, and
for me that is part of what art is all about.

Compendium challenge week 10...

2010-08-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well after throwing away my first idea here is my piece
for this week's challenge. The challenge this week
involved the use of Distress Stickles and the lovely Linda
wants to know what colours we used. On my piece I used
some of Tim's Shabby paper stack and then used some
7 Gypsies stamps on the background, a grungeboard
butterfly and some bling. I used Fired Brick and

Worn Lipstick distress stickles on the butterfly and
liberally applied the Rock Candy distress stickles
over the swirls and stamped butterfly. I took 5 pictures
of this and I cannot see the Rock Candy stickles,
but trust me it is there :)

I want to thank Linda for putting this challenge together,
every Monday I look forward to seeing what we have to
do for that week's challenge. Also I am definitely going
outside my box with some of these pieces, particularly
today's. Anyone who knows me knows that pink and
butterflies are not my thing, so today is definitely a
change for me. Looking forward to seeing what
everyone else does.

It's that time again...

2010-08-13T08:37:00.001-07:00

Back to school this week, where did the summer go!

So my oldest is now a Senior in high school and my
youngest just started as a Freshman. They have not
been in the same school for the last 4 years so it will
be interesting to see how this goes. It has been a tough
week having to get up early again and they have been
bringing home lots of forms that I need to sign. I much
prefer the end of the school year :)

Last year and the year before I did something called
Project 365, I have now heard it called Picture of the Day.
After spending 2 years with my camera as my constant
companion and trying to find interesting things to
photograph each day I decided to take this

year off. Well my husband and oldest son were not happy
as they loved looking back through the months to see
what we had been up to.

I have decided to bring this project back, I had the idea

to document the senior year of my son as it is probably
his last year at home with us before college. I hate to think
of it this way so I am looking for ideas of a title for my
365 album. I had several thoughts that involved things
like "Life with a Senior","365 days of living with a Senior".
Seeing it like that made me realise it could be construed
as an actual senior, as in an older person, lol!
I would like to put the title on the front of the album so
everyone will know what it is about before they open the
album up. My first album was titled "2008 - A Year in Pictures".
I know there are a lot of very creative people out there
and am hoping for suggestions...

Compendium challenge week 9...

2010-08-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry for this week's challenge as posted at
StudioL3.

I had a few issues with the crackle paint and I have had
problems before. I love the idea of the crackle paints but
have to say that the product does not last long at all
before drying up completely.

I wanted to use the Picket Fence crackle but it was totally
solid with the brush stuck in the middle. I had to use the

white paint dabber and then the Rock Candy
Distress Crackle instead. Despite the issues, I do love
using the Rock Candy crackle and now have several
jars of that so I can use it on anything.

Have a look at this :

As you can see it is way passed the add water to it stage.
I found another 2 of my crackle paints the same so now
that makes 6 I have barely used and then had to throw
away. Am I the only one having this issue ? if so then
what is everyone else doing to keep their paints useable ?

I'm back...

2010-08-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well I came home last night from a couple of days at Art Unraveled.

I was going to stay one more night and attend the
shopping extravaganza that was held this morning but
decided to cut it short due to something that happened
earlier this week. So here is a quick report.

This is my workspace in Traci Bautista's class where we
got to play with paints, we were shown lots of demo's by
Traci and then went off to try them out. We were to
make background papers and then had to cut them up
to make a collage, it was so hard to cut up the papers
we had just made, I had to choose the ones I did not
like as much so I could keep all the ones I did like, lol!

This is me with my cruise mate Michelle both having fun
in Traci's class. If you ever get the chance to take a class
with Traci I highly recommend it. She has so much
information to share and the class is so stress free and fun,
I am looking forward to making more background papers.

This is from my class yesterday with Karen Michel. I love
how it turned out but may still add a little more to it.
You would not believe the colour of the paint that was
used as we used India Ink to make a patina on top of it.
A very fun class and I actually have a bigger piece that I
made which needs finishing, although I am tempted to not

embellish the wood blocks - will have to think about it.

It was a very brief experience of Art Unraveled for me
but I did enjoy my daytime classes.
I also met a very nice lady from Austin, TX - hello Susan!!

We were sat next to each other for the Weds night class,
which all I can say was not a good class, but we had a
really nice time chatting and maybe will get to meet
again at another event.

Compendium challenge week 8...

2010-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here is my week 8 entry for the challenge going on at
Studio L3. This week's challenge required the use of
grungeboard or grungepaper, that is all I can say about
it per the rules.

I have not really used grungeboard much before, which if
you saw the amount I had you would find that hard to believe:)

My die cut note card was cut from grungeboard and I
tried several colours on it before I found one that seemed
to show up well. It really does require a lot of inking as it
seems to really suck up the ink. My tip is do not even
think about using light colours on it.

The heart die cut was from a set I got in a kit from Heidi
Swapp, which I sprayed with some Smooch Spritz, just
started trying those out and I really like them.

I am lucky enough to be going to Art Unraveled here in
Phoenix this week for a few days, it is back to school next
week so cannot be away for too long. I am looking
forward to taking a Zentangle class, also taking a class
with Traci Bautista and a class with Karen Michel.
Looking forward to learning some fun new things,
hopefully I will remember to take some pictures!

Compendium challenge week 7...

2010-07-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Well here is my attempt at this week's challenge. It
involved alcohol ink which I always have a hard time
with, and it took a couple of attempts to get the
alcohol ink to not disappear after I had applied it,
then I saw little strands from the felt and tried to
remove them, not fun!

If you would like to play along go and visit the
lovely Linda to see what it is all about.

On another note, I have the cheap Michaels version of the

stamp set with the Eiffel Tower I used on this and every
time I use it I can never get it inked well enough to stamp
a good image. I have to try to stamp over it which never
exactly lines up. Am I the only one who is having issues
with this stamp set ?