Make Art

This months challenge on the Make ART Challenge Blog is re-inkers.  I've used Wendy's splattered plaster technique on the background found HERE on Wendy's blog.  I did that part of the background a couple weeks ago and I don't remember exactly which colors of Archival Ink re-inkers I used.  The flower pot is is one of her mat minis and I did her faux graniteware technique on it.  Other Wendy products used for this tag are... stencil (alphabets), background stamp (four leaf clover), and various other stamps from these sets - trademark art, framed art, and license plate art. I stamped the flower with jet black archival, embossed it with clear powder, and added color with Distress Markers.  Make Art is also stamped with jet black.  Some Tim Holtz rub-ons are added to the flower pot. All stamping and stenciling were done with Archival Inks.   

You Never Know

Happy Monday Friends!!!! 

You will find a project from me on the Quietfire Creations Blog today.  Please flip on over there and check it out!!! 

I hope your week is wonderful!!!  ((Hugs)) - because we all need some hugs!!!

Wedding Invitation

Things are busy here with lots of exciting stuff going on.  Our youngest is 18 and graduating high school.  He's actually all finished up and we are having his open house in early May.  We've been working on announcements (done) and pictures and everything else that goes along with it.  I'm trying to do better then when our other son graduated.  I was up almost all night the night before the open house working on picture boards, lol.  

Our other son, soon to be 21, is getting married in June.  This has been fast!!  He proposed on Valentine's day.  She's a total sweetheart and we look forward to having her as a daughter-in-law!!!  We made the invitations and I'm sharing pictures today.  I have a score-it board and it came in handy here.  The extra scores on the front really added a lot to the look.  A little bit of stamping - the "H" and the flourish at the bottom inside - both done with Archival Ink deep purple.  The medallion on the front is a large Fiskars punch (running circles) and then 2 circle punches.  

Here & Now

I'm finally back with that post about the Wendy Vecchi class I took a week ago.  The class was held at The Scrapbooking Studio in Moline, IL.  It was an all day class and Amy, the store owner, had snacks (chocolate), bottles of water, and lunch for us.  She also had a gift bag for each of us.  My bag had 2 large Blossom Bucket decorative pieces that are way cool!!!  Thanks, Amy!!!!

The picture above with Wendy and I, I took with my phone and I am not great at holding the phone with one hand while trying to be ready for picture and hit the correct button just right, lol.  Hence, my lack of a real smile!!!

Below is a group shot with some friends.  In order - Me, Wendy, Deb, Lori (blog), Susan (blog), and Nancy.  I had been to a get together in Ohio with Deb, Lori, and Nancy a few years ago but this was the first time meeting Susan.  It was wonderful to meet her and see everyone else.  

For class we began by learning several different techniques using Wendy's inks, powders and pastes doing most of them on tags.  When we'd finish that we moved onto a larger project that incorporated many of the techniques we'd just learned choosing our own colors, layout and words.  We worked on a 6" x 6" canvas board and included the wood frame from a mini canvas (canvas removed), Wendy products, and Tim Holtz products.  Wendy even provided a frame for each of us.  Here is my finished piece!!! 

PaperArtsy Niches

Hello!!!!!!!  I'm thrilled to be on the PaperArtsy Blog today with a post for their 2015 #7 theme, Niches.  I do hope you zoom on over there and check it out.  I had a great time making my own niche from .... oh, so sorry, you will have to go there to find out :-))  

Note Cards

Happy Monday!!!  I hope your weekend was wonderful!!  I went to an all day Wendy Vecchi class over at the Scrapbooking Studio in Moline and got to meet up with several friends I hadn't seen in a long time and meet another online friend.  Fun, Fun, Fun!!!  I'll share pictures about that later.  

Today I'm sharing two sets of note cards I made for a fund raiser they were having at the church our sons attend.  They were raising money to help kids pay for camp this summer.  

On the first set I used a plastic fern leaf and Dylusion sprays for the backgrounds.  On the second set I used a TCW stencil and Distress Inks along with spritzing Distress markers.  The scripture stamps are from Our Daily Bread Designs and they are stamped with jet black Archival Ink.  All the cards were sealed to keep inks from moving.  

Thanks For Being My Friend

I'm over on the Quietfire Creations blog today sharing about using a die as a mask.  I hope you'll pop on over and check it out!!!!

A Delightful Adventure

I had a little "just play" time last week.  Sometimes we need to do that!!!!  But lets back up just a bit...   Jennifer McGuire had a post on her blog a couple weeks ago about No-Clog Fine-Tip Adhesive Solutions and after checking it out I bought some of the ScraPerfect No-Clog Writing Caps and I've also bought some of the Fineline Applicators that she mentions although I haven't used them yet.  I did put one of the No-Clog caps on my Glossy Accents bottle and love it.  I also thought... "I wonder if it will fit on a bottle of Fresco Finish Paint and how that might work" so I grabbed a bottle of paint (bougainvillea because I was rather obsessed with that color at that moment) and the cap went on just fine and the paint came out just fine.  How cool is that!!!!  Things were busy and the bottle sat.  Then last week I just had to do something with it and what better thing then a journal page.  I had no plan... at all!!!  I drew some flowers, first the outside and then added a circle with swirls to the center.  I'm not that good at drawing, even simple flowers but that's ok :)  I painted in the flowers with candy floss and zesty zing in the centers.  Since I love texture I grabbed a Tim Holtz stencil and Wendy's embossing paste and added some random stenciling around the flowers.  After that was dry I decided I would do some glazing.  Now years ago I had bought a bunch of bottles of Golden glazes and they have mostly just sat (sad, I know!!) and they had been on my mind, so, that's what I pulled out.  I first glazed over the whole page with Fresco Cream glaze and used a baby wipe to clean it off.  It actually looked good but I thought more color would be nice so I glazed again with Patina Green and wiped it back with a baby wipe.  It was at this point that I thought about gesso and how the paper in my journal was absorbent and I hadn't gessoed first and maybe I should have.  However, I like how it came out so all is well.  I added some script stamping with Archival Ink tree branch.  I had drawn a flower in the upper left corner that was ugly and so when I added the embossing paste I did that corner hoping to kind of hide it but that didn't work very well so I stippled toffee paint all around the edges.  This is a nice color that I don't think I'd used before (shame on me).   I thought I should do more with the flowers and I had another cap so I put it on an extra bottle of snowflake and added all the white dots.  I also did the centers of the flowers again with bougainvillea.  To finish it up, I added Florentine Treasure Gold around the edges and lightly over the other textured areas.  Put on some of the Tim Holtz large chit chat stickers, went around them with a marker and added dots of bougainvillea by the words and also around the page.  It was a fun play!!!!!  Just to be clear - the paints I used were all PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints and the glazes I used were Golden.

Die-ing For Spring Hop Winner

Happy Monday Morning!!!!  I hope you had a good weekend and that your Easter was wonderful!!

Thank you to Everyone that followed along with the Quietfire Design Die-ing For Spring Blog Hop and left such wonderful comments on my post!!  I read and enjoyed each one!!!

Now for the winner..............  

Marg said...

What a beautiful background. I love the bright colours.

Congratulations, Marg!!!  Please email either me (address to left) or Suzanne at Quietfire Design with your information.


I've created another card using the Hello die.  When I made my hop card (found Here), as I was trying to decide what colors of Hello to use, I had cut a few extra from different colors.  These were laying in my work area along with the first pressing of paint from when I was working on the cougar card (found Here) and also some gingko leaves I had stamped and cut out and not used yet.  (I won't mention the rest of the pile of other left over stuff laying in my work area - sshhh)  I decided I should put these all together.  I stamped gingko leaves over the paint background with Archival Ink pale ochre, tore the top and bottom, added 2 kinds of washi tape and some Idea-ology paper string, attached it to a pink panel and to the folded green card, glued on the Hello and the foam taped on the gingko leaves, and finally added a few white highlights to the hello with a gel pen.

Hedgehog Giggle

Happy Thursday!!!  I hope you've been having a good week!!!

A couple weeks ago or so someone had shared a card on a Facebook group I belong to and it had a hedgehog on it.  Our daughter has a hedgehog - it's very cute - and I knew she would love hedgehog mail.  I found out it was a Spellbinder's die and went searching, placed an order and when it arrived, made this card.  I put it (and a little set of Fawn Lawn stamps with hedgehogs) in the mail and she got it this past weekend.  Yes, she was THRILLED!!!!  

I've used Fresco Finish Paint (tangerine twist, tango, limelight) on an acrylic blog much like I did for THIS post but I've stamped on a very absorbent paper.  No, I don't know what kind (or even where/when I got it), but it feels kind of like a cottony handmade type of paper but smooth.  I die cut the hedgehog from an off-white cardstock and inked just a bit with antique linen Distress Ink and I've attached it to the card with foam mounting tape.  Giggle is an old Stampin' Up image stamped with jet black Archival Ink.