Salmon, Anyone?

Ok..I'm not talking about the actual fish, but the color salmon- oh .. and NO it isn't my favorite color lol! There's sort of a long story behind all of this, but to try to make a long story short, Dede was having us pick our fav colors to create a page for each of us in one of her journals. Somehow.. before I knew it, I was *tricked* into picking the color salmon with my "real" fav colors of blues/purples. Yes, I was tricked, I tell ya! It really is one of those "you had to be there" type of moments. Rach was also going to use our colors to create pages in her journal & she totally made fun of my choice of colors! It is now kind of a running joke in streams. See... I told you "you had to be there" lol!

All of that is to sort of explain this card I made for Rach. There's a bit of a back story on how/why we sent cards to Rach, but most important is that Julia was nice enough to arrange it & get them all to Rach in one package. I knew I HAD to make something with salmon .. the color or the fish .. either one! I started printing out some canned salmon images and one night in Stickam, Fran suggested doing a Warhol type of card with the different colored cans. Brilliant! This is what I came up with... I used Paint Shop Pro 7 to colorize the cans, printed them out on glossy cardstock and cut them out. I then just used various colored cardstock and layered it all.(Rach just loved the combo of salmon, midnight blue & purple lol!) It was fun to make and I think Rach got a kick out of it!

Earlier in the month, one of my online friends, Kathy (grafxkat) was going to New Orleans with some of her family, so hubby and I drove over and met them at the Riverwalk. We ate some yummy food at Mike Andersons and had a great visit. She was so sweet and her husband & daughters were just a joy to meet. Kathy brought me a box of 54 bottles of Americana craft paint..Yes FIFTY FOUR! She was trying to get rid of some of her stock of a store she once owned and I was happy to help her do that hehe!
Here's a pic - such eye candy! Thank you again, Kathy!

I wanted to bring her a little something and wound up making a really simple mini-album for her. Now there is a long story behind the making of that album! Hopefully most who read my blog know already and I won't have to be tortured again in reliving the horror I endured LOL!..(yeh,thanks Dede hehe!) I've never made a mini before and this was a premade chipboard one that I just covered with papers, etc. I kept it really plain .. first of all because I really had no clue how to decorate it .. and also because I thought Kathy could put her own touches on it.

Oh, I also received some beautiful things that I need to take pictures of and post. I did do a video of a couple of things I received and you can watch it HERE . I'm so thankful to have found this community with such nice and giving gals. Thank you all!

 (As I re-read my post, it seems I'm starting everything with a "there's a long story behind this"!  I guess I could just post the picture and not have to explain?  I don't know - just seems to be my nature to over explain and try to have it make sense to others... um.. not sure I've done a good job there LOL!)

See you next time!

Yes, It's been a while...

Well, I know it's been almost a year since I posted here-sorry about that!I am going to try to do better. I actually have been challenged by my buddy, Fran to make at least a card a month and post on my blog. I honestly have been quite the slacker in doing any kind of arting, so she's kicking my butt in gear to get busy LOL! I have good intentions of making more than one card a month.. but not sure that'll happen. At least with Fran's challenge, I HAVE to do at least one card a month... Thanks Fran :)

I'll try to catch up on a few things:

(April, 2011) I made this card for my brother's birthday. He takes beautiful Louisiana wildlife photographs, so I had to use my camera stamp. You can see his photos here.

This is actually ONE card, but I'm showing 3 views of it. It's called a Viewmaster card. The blue notched thing on the right with the arrow turns and a different stamped picture will show up in the camera lens. I put a little piece of clear acetate in the lens so it appears blurry in the photo, but isn't in real life. The camera is on pop dots, so it's a bit lifted off of the page.



(May, 2011) I made this card for my mom for Mother's Day. Just a simple card (all of my cards tend to be pretty simple). I'm not loving this one, but it is what it is. My mom seemed to like it lol.



The next two projects were actually made in 2012 (miracle lol).

First are these "lilac panties" I made for my friend, Mitzi. I made a little set of these for her last year .. sort of as a joke. Her daughter is getting married and loved them, so wanted a few more so she can use them as invitations to her bachelorette party lol! There is no die for these .. everything is hand cut LOL! Fun to make, though!




The second card was a simple card I made for my son's girlfriend. She loves owls ... for some reason I thought I "needed" the Stampin Up owl punch (had never used it).. so this was perfect opportunity for me to finally make an owl! (Looks like I like this color combination lol)



That's about it for now. There are a few other things I did work on last year (a 4x4 swap), that I might add later, but today is the end of the month and I promised Fran I would post!

Ustream & Postcards

For a while now, I've been watching YouTube videos of artists showing their art journals, stamped projects and various papercrafts. It's been great for inspiration while I'm trying to get back into stamping and just beginning art journaling. There are so many talented people, I could watch their videos 24 hours a day! Somehow (and I wish I remembered how) I was directed to Ustream where some of the same artists I've watched on Youtube were arting live at various times. I lurked as a guest a few times, then got brave and signed up for an account and actually signed into one of the Ustream chats and said a meek "hi" ..... everyone was so friendly and welcoming! Long story short, I have so enjoyed this community, it's hard to describe. I am totally out of my league art-wise, but the inspiration and motivation I get is worth me feeling inadequate LOL.

On one of the streams, inkwell (Dede) proposed a Postcard "Share your Art" challenge (better named "Tonnage of Funnage"!) She picks a snippet of ribbon out of her huge stash, a random magazine page and sends those and a plain white postcard to you to make something with. The color of the ribbon and the page are just for a bit of inspiration to get you started. After making your postcard, you send it back to her and on future streams, she will draw a name from that shows' chat list and she will send that person one of these postcards we've made. It's been a blast seeing what everyone has made with their ribbon, magazine page & white postcard! She shows them on her streams & also posts them to the flickr here) - . I decided to just jump in and do this challenge and I got a black ribbon, and a magazine page of a Dagwood & Blondie comic.

This is what I received:


This is the postcard I came up with:


I can't get the colors quite right with my scanner, but it's close enough. I used the ribbon as the curtains (stamped & embossed) and the fringe on the rug. I really should have reinforced the little magazine images as they are quite fragile - I'll know next time! It was really fun to make and later on I'll probably have Dede send another postcard, ribbon & magazine page and challenge myself again.

I also made a card for Dede to thank her for all that she does for her Ustream folks. Her muse is Mona Lisa, I just had to use my crazy Mona Lisa cat. After Dede showed the card on her show, kerri came up with the perfect name..... Meowna Lisa! Too funny!
Anyway, this is the card I sent:



I've needed to get out of my shell & comfort zone and this community of Ustreamers has helped a lot in that. I can tend to get into a "mood" where I withdraw from everything, but I've tried to ignore that feeling and keep pushing myself. I'm very thankful that I found Ustream LOL. It can be very addicting though!

Here are some of the ustream channels that I try my best to watch. You can just click on their name and it will take you to their channel. I'm sure I'll be adding more :)
Make sure to catch one of their shows or watch their recorded shows - you won't regret it!

inkwell
JournalArtista
ikerrilove
Rach0113
Blade21292
LaurelfromNJ
mitzicurry
lindaisrael
SarahAllan
ArtJourney

Thank you Ustreamers!

Unicorns & Rainbows

Well, not quite....but a little less whine than the previous entry!

I did want to post a few things that I've made lately.

I was fortunate to find a wonderful Stampin Up! demonstrator (Stamping Sharon) who has a get together once a month where you make 6 different cards. She has the cardstock & paper cut for you so you stamp and assemble the cards from her designs. It's really great for when you're in a creative slump to be able to have the idea already there for you....plus it's fun meeting new people and getting out of the house! I've gone 3 times now and have really enjoyed it (while spending money lol). I am pretty much a plain and simple stamper and I like Sharon's designs as they are simple, yet always have a special touch to them. Here are some of the cards we've made.

All stamps by Stampin' Up!







Another couple of things I have made lately are an ATC and a card to go along with it. These were sent to Dale http://daleannepotter.com/blog/ right around Mardi Gras..... she was nice enough to ask if I wanted to trade an ATC with her. I hadn't made an ATC in a very long time, so it was fun working with that size again. I guess I really didn't realize how long I had put stamping on the back burner and it has been both challenging and rewarding to get back into it. I have a very noisy inner critic and I'm trying to shut her up these days by just pushing through and enjoying the process of creating something. The more I do it, the easier it will become..right?


The card:
Mask stamp: unknown at this time
Text stamp: Stubby Stampers

The ATC:
paint, collage, stamps

Jumping In With Both Feet (at least dipping a toe in!)

I've started this blog several times and I always go back and delete anything I've written or posted. This is not going to happen again. I've decided to just go with it and try to share my "art" (I still have trouble calling anything I do art). I've wasted too much time being afraid and critical of myself that it's time to get over it already! In addition to posting a few of my creations, I will probably just ramble on about who knows what. Not sure what all of the correct blog etiquette is, so I hope I never offend anyone or just plain make a fool of myself - although I have a feeling the latter will happen more than once!