Lime and Lemon and New

This entry is for two challenges: Rainbow Lady's Challenge (new) and Colour Create Challenge (the colors of lime and lemon).

The two origami cranes are new gifts from a Japanese friend. I set them on a black lacquered tray to take the picture. The tray has numerous gorgeous flowers on it, but I chose to use only this one.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Paper Minutes - many colors

Paper Minutes is bursting with colors this week as we celebrate the beginning of the new year of 2010. We are to use more than 3 colors. I have used several (at least 5 different colors) inks and glimmer mists to make this background. The stars were stamped onto yellow card stock and cut out. The purple stars are cut slightly larger.

MMM - least favorite color

I love most colors so this was hard for me. I finally chose to do a tag for Mixed Media Monday using this olive green that has a lot of red tone to it. I'm not sure that the screen can portray the color correctly. Another less favorite color would be what Beth chose, a vivid hot fuchsia.

Greetings to my Blog Friends...

This is early and probably not the last Happy New Year art I will do. In an effort to ease down out of Christmas mode, I decided to fiddle around with Photoshop Elements this afternoon.

Theme Thursday - Fun

Fun is the theme for this week's Theme Thursday. I used a darling skating couple image from Graphics Fairy and some digital brushes from Brusheezy over my shiny wintry looking background to make this postcard.. 

The background started as a piece of plain paper on which I crumpled waxed paper and ironed. Then I took various homemade Pearl Ex and reinkers mists. I left this background to dry naturally overnight. This is difficult for me because I always want to go right into the next step of creating. Anyway, the background looked like a winter scene so I decided to go with that and find an image of winter fun.

Wednesday Stamper

Today I used my 50% off coupon at Michaels to get this Sepia Archival ink pad. I'm not sure trees is the best use for sepia color, but here it is. Around the edges is pink-gold Lumiere. Bedecking the trees is Ranger Crystal Ice Stickles. The Crystal Ice looks so good in person that I am appalled to see how the scan came out. Everything that looks like gray is really sparkles. Wednesday Stamper has given us an open theme, meaning we can choose whatever we want as long as it has at least one rubber stamp.

Winter Snowflake Tag

Making snowflakes from a scratch is not easy. I see why every snowflake is an original. I had trouble just making each point look somewhat alike. Winter is the theme for Crazy Amigo Challenge; Snowflakes is the theme for Created by Hand Challenge; and Different Shaped Tag is the theme for Tag Tuesday. I used Stampin'Up Heat and Stick powder and Stampendous CrystalSnow.

TMTA - Christmas Figures

Think Monday Think ATCs'  theme this week is figures of Christmas. What could be more basic than the manger scene? Here is a creche I made a few years ago. My sister did the wood carving and I did the painting. (Some of you saw this picture on my other blog. I have used that to make this digital ATC.)

Sunday Postcard - Christmas

Sunday Postcard (4"x6") has the theme of Christmas. This paper collage is made from snips and pieces from some magazine pictures. The background is made on a card stock which had been sprayed with hair spray then misted with various homemade mica mists and reinkers, plus a tad of gesso.

Home for Christmas

Saturday's Surprise has as its theme: Home for the Holidays. This card was made using a picture from the past. It was a Christmas we had traveled from Texas to Alabama to spend with my in-laws. On the left is my son; on the right is his cousin Mary. It was so nice to be able to be with family during the holidays that year.

Girls and Deer - ACF

OK. Is it cheating if I used the same post as yesterday and just add the two girls? I put those darling little twins in my backyard with the deer. I think they look right at home. The image of the girls was given to us by Art Creations Friday to use today.

Deer Legs

My entry for Rainbow Lady's Challenge (deer or large animals) and for Theme Thursday (legs) is seen here. The picture was taken last winter in our back yard.

The Three Muses Challenge

The Three Muses' theme this week is mail art. I have made a couple of my ancestors, Ben Rhea and Mrs. Sallie Rhea (related, but not sure how), into postage stamps. The embossed background was done using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The writing is a freebie from Rein.

Tag Tuesday - Punch it!

Here is my tag using a snowflake punch. The tree is a new stamp stamped onto white cardstock and cut out. This is for Tag Tuesday, where the theme is to use a punch.

TMTA - Children's Books

I grew up on Billy Whiskers books. My mother owned several in the series, which were published in the early 1900s, and she read them to me and my sister as bedtime stories. I believe the covers of hers weren't colorful like this picture. I remember there was a light blue book and a tan book. I think there may have been one or two more. The mother and daughter are Dover images. The theme for Think Monday Think ATCs this week is children's books.

We're still having computer problems.  But we should be back to normal soon.

One Stop - Christmas Love

One Stop Craft Challenge has as its theme this week: Christmas Love. I am using an altered picture of myself and a digital brush of one of my ancestors to produce this completely digital Christmas card.

We are having computer and television problems, so if I seem to drop off the face of the earth in the next few days, you'll know what's going on. We aren't sure why everything seems to be falling apart all at the same time. My DH has given up for the day, I think, after speaking to 5 different reps from our server, each one dropping the call. I really think they didn't know what to tell him to do, so they took the easy way out and disconnected.

Art Creations Friday

Here is how I used the image given to us this week by Art Creations Friday. I used Photoshop Elements to create this digital ATC.

Paper Minutes and Wednesday Stamper

This is my card for Paper Minutes. The theme is white, cream, and rose colors. My lace got mashed in the scanner and the color of the rose lace is a bit off.

EDIT: This is also my card for Wednesday Stamper, since I have stamped and embossed the Christmas tree. WS has as its theme this week: Winter.

Created by Hand - Hanukkah

This is my entry for Created by Hand (Hanukkah).

Regal Ladies - Gothic Arches

I've used a couple of Dover Publications freebie images for this along with some gradient filters and such. This is my entry for Sunday Gothic Arches.

One Stop Craft Challenge - Fancy Folds

Three views of my easel-style fold up card. One Stop Craft Challenge's theme is Fancy Folds. My card doesn't have folds on it; it just folds like an easel.

Crazy Amigos - Happy Birthday Card

Here is a digital birthday card I have made for Crazy Amigos. The background and lady in the foreground came from Dover. The tree is from Brusheezy Brushes.

Theme Thursday - Bookmarks

This bookmark was made in early summertime using petals from flowers and leaves from shrubs. The petals and leaves were pounded causing the "juice" to soak into the watercolor paper. I have digitally added the text. The theme for Theme Thursday this week is Bookmarks. (With all the bookmarks I own, I still usually use an old envelope!) The purple is Siberian iris; the red and the green are barberry leaves. I've found that Japanese maple leaves also do very well with pounding.

Wednesday Stamper - Santa

I

This is a photo of my son's first visit to Santa. Can't you see happiness at meeting Santa? LOL!!! Poor kid was scared speechless. My stamp is my new tree stamp I got yesterday at Ben Franklin's for a dollar. I think it was made by Cee Dee industries. This is my entry for Wednesday Stamper. I am using the photo "as is" without Photoshopping.

Tag Tuesday - purple, green, and silver

Tag Tuesday has as its theme this week to use the colors purple, green and silver. My tag was daubed with some reinkers of purple and green. I also used a little of the Adirondack silver metallics and blending solution. I stamped with my newest stamp from the craft store, an unmounted rubber stamp I got for a dollar. The silver embossing didn't work too well over the Adirondack silver so I outlined in silver pen.

Paper Minutes - snowman

Here is a watercolor painting I made to use on Christmas cards. Not this year. I hope it's ok to use for Paper Minutes challenge.

Card from Heike!

I am posting this on both blogs.

The mail man brought me a beautiful surprise today, a card from Heike! I am so amazed because 1st, it was completely unexpected, and 2nd, it is one of the most exquisitely gorgeous cards I have ever received. Thank you, Heike, for this lovely start to the Advent season. I wish all the sparkle that is on this card showed up in the scan. It is truly one of a kind.

Die Briefträger brachte mir eine wunderschöne Überraschung heute eine Karte von Heike! Ich bin so überrascht, weil der 1., war es völlig unerwartet, und 2. ist es eine der raffiniertesten wunderschöne Karten, die ich je erhalten habe. Vielen Dank, Heike, für diese schönen Start in die Adventszeit. Ich wünsche allen den Glanz, die auf dieser Karte ist, zeigte sich in den Scan ein. Es ist wirklich einzigartig.

Mixed Media Monday - Bedtime Stories

The theme for Mixed Media Monday is Bedtime Stories. I remember my mother reading her precious Billy Whiskers books to my sister and me at bedtime. She also read from The Dog of Flanders. There weren't a lot of fiction books in our house growing up but somehow we all loved to read. My grandfather, who lived with us, had only gone through the fourth grade. Even he loved to read and we often found him reading our geography and reading books.

This collage was made by taking a Dover image (the woman and girl) and a Graphics Fairy image (the 2 boys) and printing them off onto photo paper. The background is alcohol inks sprayed onto a piece of a shirt box. Some childish animal stamps,  some gold stars, and a daubing of ink around the edges finished it off.

Saturday Surprise - Unconventional Colors for Christmas

These two cards I made for Saturday Surprise, using unusual colors (not the usual red and green) to make a Christmas or holiday card. The angel stamp is Celestial Angel by Stamps Happen from Laura, my art friend. The snowflakes came from Nancy Maxwell-James, from a drawing.

Art Creations Friday 51

Art Creations Friday gave us such a gorgeous background to work with this week.

Wednesday Stamper - 3

OK, I know you're going to wonder: where is the stamp? Well, this is one of those failures that actually looks pretty good in real life.

I have been itching to try beeswax but I didn't want to invest in a huge amount if I didn't know what to do with it. So on my vacation I found a candlemaker in Arkansas who sold me a small dollop of beeswax. Today I tried it, but I didn't know what I was doing. How does one get the wax evenly over the surface???

While it was still molten I stamped my PSX stamp of 3 berries into the wax. That is in the upper left side of this card. I assure you, there really is a stamp there.

The purple flower has 3 layers of petals and I've used the numeral 3. Can anyone direct me to a reliable website with a beeswax tutorial?

This piece was done for Wednesday Stamper.

The 3 Muses - Time

The Three Muses' theme this week is time. I am using some Dover images to reflect the innocence of childhood.

Blue Bird ATC

Think Monday Think ATCs is encouraging us to do art today using a bird and the color blue. I found this Dover Publications freebie of Van Gogh's  painting. The bird is also from Dover. The bear? Was it from Art Creations Friday? The Li'l Redhead is my drawing.

Sunday Postcard - Flourishes

I do love flourishes so this challenge just had to be tried. My background is one I made from card stock and various Moon Shadow mists. I used numerous flourish stamps over the background.. After I had scanned this adorned card stock, I added the couple of kids from Dover Publications. This piece was done for Sunday Postcard Art.

Snowflakes

Here is my snowflake entry for the One Stop Craft challenge. The card stock is white. I do not know why it looks pink.

Art Creations Friday

For this challenge we are using again one of my favorite Art Creations Friday images in our art this week. First I made a Photoshop Elements brush from the image and stamped it digitally onto a rose colored background along with a magnolia brush stamp. Then I used the poster edges filter and printed out the image onto paper. After adhering the paper to heavier card stock, I added the embellishments of the flowers, lace, and buttons..

The sepia image is using various digital brushes I have made.

Theme Thursday - Lots of Color Skinny

Here is my very colorful skinny for the Theme Thursday challenge. And here is how I made it.

First, I took a 3x5 cardstock and colored purple, green, rose, and orange NuPastels on it. I knocked off the chalk dust and sprayed with hair spray.

Next, I used Moon Glow's Starburst colors of Ramblin' Rose, French Lilac, and Canna Lily Burnt Orange. These had dauber tops so I daubed with them. I also used Moon Glow's Glitz Spritz in Desert Moon Antique Rose.

Lastly I stamped in Archival Ink three of my handmade fun foam stamps. The gold sticker was a freebie. Hope this wasn't too much color! I think I like it better without the gold sticker.

Wednesday Stamper - maps

I continue to get travel brochures almost weekly. This one for a sightseeing safari in the Serengeti touched an adventuresome nerve and sparked my interest. Not that I will ever go on such a wonderful and exciting trip.

I have made this collage using bits and pieces of the brochure and topping it off with my new elephant mom and baby stamp by Rubber Stampede. I finished it off with a layer of Modge Podge. This is for Wednesday Stamper.

Paper Minutes - Turquoise, Lilac, Brown

Blogspot wouldn't accept my scanned image so my entry for this week's Paper Minutes challenge is

HERE ON MY OTHER BLOG

TMTA - red, black, and white

Here is my entry for the Think Monday Think ATCs challenge this week. I have used red card stock to stamp my holly on, lace, and fabric flowers. All these were mounted on the 2.5x3.5" red card stock. I used the white marking pen to outline and to letter.

Scratch It!

Saturday's Workout introduced us to a technique that has the underpainting making the design in the finished piece.

Please enlarge to see the elephant more clearly.




Here's how I made mine:

1. I used Moon Shadow mists to make a orange and brown background.

2. When that layer dried, I wiped on black acrylic paint.

3. Immediately, I took my new elephant stamp and stamped into the wet paint.

4. Next, I took a palette knife and drew the tree and bushes in the wet paint.

I left the background showing around the edges of the black to show you the colors I used.

ACF and Theme thursday

For Theme Thursday this week we are using a patterned background. My background is one I made using a sprayed, dabbed, and painted cardstock. I then stamped a magnolia digital brush onto that. The magnolia brush is one I made from an image of a magnolia. From this one image I made the pattern using Photoshop Elements.

The three boys are what Art Creations Friday gave us to use for our challenge this week. I have added a Christmas tree from Dover Publications and I'm calling this piece: Waiting for Santa.

I didn't quite get this gorgeous frame right. I may rework it later. Or not.

Gingersnap Creations - Buttons

I had sprayed this white card stock with cranberry and stream color washes but I had no idea what to do with the background. Then Gingersnap Creations came up with the theme buttons. I figured light against the dark should look pretty good. I found some dress buttons and some military buttons for the design. My stamps were stamped with clear ink and embossed with white detail powder.

Paper Minutes

I don't have any stamps of ships, but my son found a lot of fish and shells stamps on ebay and got them for me. So here is my entry to Paper Minutes' "Maritime."

The background is an old cardboard from a shirt box, which I sprayed with hairspray and then with alcohol inks. I am really pleased with the colors of the background. I then stamped four different seaside stamps in archival ink. I thought it lacked something so I outlined in white ink.