One Stop - Buttons and Bows

One Stop's challenge this week is all about buttons and/or bows. I have made a valentine card from a background done earlier today as practice for another challenge, using a distressed gesso technique. Check out TrishBee's method for doing this. The bird, butterfly, and birdhouse stamps were all Christmas gifts. This really isn't quite so much the color of Pepto Bismol as it appears onscreen. I just can't get it exact.

My thanks to my friend Lucille, who supplied me with lots of photo papers from her photo mistakes. That's what the narrow band of color is - a picture that wasn't focused.

Saturday's Workout - Distressed Gesso

What a fabulous technique we have for our Saturday's Workout challenge today. Distressed Gesso is the name of TrishBee's wonderful background method. I used two colors of green dye ink and one of a blue plus the gesso, of course. Other entries are found at SaWo.

Artarazzi -Orange

Artarazzi gave us a gorgeous painting "Boreas" by John William Waterhouse to use in this week's challenge. The other requirement is that we are to use orange.

Yikes! I've Been Tagged

Alison tagged me. Now it is my opportunity to tag six others. I had to go into my photos folder and select the sixth folder in it. From this folder I had to choose the 6th photo to show on my blog and explain.

This is a picture of my granddaughter's sophomore honors convocation at her high school. She is the second in line here. This picture is 4 years old in April! 

I have selected 32 people in the last week to receive honors for awards I received and had to pass on. Forgive me if I skipped you. Please feel free to consider yourself tagged and select the 6th photo from the 6th folder in your photo folder and display on your blog. Please let me know so I can follow up.

Theme Thursday - 4x4

Theme Thursday challenges us this week to use the 4x4 format to make a piece of art. My background has been made with my new Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons. The flower is part of a greetings card that I painted for a friend.

New Award from Judy

What a surprise I got this evening! Judy in New Zealand has given me such an honor. She has sent me this "One Lovely Blog" Award.

I am to give it to seven other artists, who will also pass it on. What an honor! Thanks so much, Judy.

Arja from Finland

Alison from UK

Margaret from Switzerland

Craftaholic Mummy from Luxembourg

Frankie from UK

Lena from Luxembourg

Jo from Spain

Paper Minutes

The penguin ATC was used for another challenge yesterday. I thought it would make a cute greetings card, so I am using it for the image in my collage for a Paper Moments entry today. 

The second entry is a very different kind for me and for this challenge. Since it is the beginning of the Chinese New Year, the year of the ox. I am using the Paper Minutes sketch to make an Asian-looking Happy New Year card. The butterfly and swirl were used in a recent Artarazzi challenge. The postcard (6x4) is entirely done with Photoshop.

Crazy Amigo Doors

Doors welcome us into new surroundings or into our old familiar places. Here is my digital skinny (3x5) using our front door and some butterflies from Dover Publications. Crazy Amigo challenge is featuring doors this week.

Created by Hand Red - Pink

This skinny (3x5") was done for Created by Hand challenge, whose theme this week is red and/or pink. I wanted to use my watercolor of red tulips, but I couldn't figure how to fit it in. So I made it tiny and put a digital frame on in. The mother and daughter in the foreground are from Dover Publications.

Beautiful Blog Award from Sharon

Sharon, a very talented artist, returned after being gone for 2 days and discovered she had 8 awards on her blog! She has generously honored me with the Beautiful Blog award, for which I am most grateful.

This is the 5th award I have received in the last three days so I have sent out many, many awards. However, I haven't sent many to my Christian Paper Artists friends yet, and those girls have some really fantastic blogs that must be seen.

So I choose as my five honorees for the Beautiful Blog award the following:

Val

Christy

Cindy

Chris

Nathalie

Gothic Arches - Winter Sports

Winter has been strange here in central Virginia - no snow or ice, just occasional cold temperatures. I think of ice skating when I think of winter sports, though, so I chose this Graphics Fairy clip art to make my Gothic Arches entry.

Gesso Transfer-Charmed

Hermine has shown us a fantastic gesso transfer technique and example on Saturday's Workout this week. And on One Stop we are to use a charm in our art. Here is my entry to both.

To see the texture better, please click on the picture.

New Award from Doris

My friend Doris has honored me with this wonderful Hugs award. 

It is given in appreciation of your lovely and witty comments and for always knowing the right thing to say at the right time...just how nice is that! A great way to give someone a hug that you've never met but who means something special to you. Pass it on to 10 others...

This is my 4th award in 2 days. I really, really appreciate all the honors. I'm working on doing more art so I had to postpone passing this on to my 10 people. Now I have my list up.

José

Pascale

Kathy

Julie

Kath

Buffy

Crissi

Juliet

Cheryl

Hanne

Artarazzi

The Artarazzi image we are to use this week is all zigzags. Our challenge is to put this in our digital art and to also use red. The bottom one is what I call "weird valentine" by using various Photoshop Elements filters. I have just added my butterfly abstract at the top. I don't know how to rearrange pictures, once I place them in a post, and the latest always ends up at the top. The top one looks like a Japanese scarf, I think.

New Awards from June and Virginia

June has honored me with the Lemonade Award.  The Lemonade Award is given by a previous winner to 5 people who have shown a great attitude or gratitude. It is a great way to show those people they are appreciated. Virginia and Louise have honored me with a Kreative Award. What a day - to get triple awards! Thanks so much.

My five honorees for the Lemonade award are:

Marie

Bev

Pink Rose

Doris

Rose

My honorees for the Kreative Award are:

Sharon

Ansku

Peggy

Serena

Tonya

Theme Thursday - 2x4

For Theme Thursday we are making art in the size of 2" x 4". Here is my entry, using bits and pieces of gold and blue from a Christmas card.

I have added the red and gray card, which is a digital alteration of the collaged 2x4.

Arty Girlz Transparent

This ATC was made a while back and has on it a found piece of mica. I haven't yet discovered how to give it to anyone because the mica is extremely fragile. My background is a scrunched magazine. I hit the tops with a light brushing of pearlized paint and gold buffing wax. This technique was developed by Sherre, who is the owner of Art Techniques, a yahoo group. My beads came in a strip and were costly so I only got 1/8th of a yard. Other transparent art can be seen at Arty Girlz.

Three in One Valentine Card

Crazy Amigo Challenge's theme this week is Deer. I had this photo of several deer eating my azaleas in the front yard and decided to use it. 

Created by Hand Challenge's theme is Hearts. So I decided I'd do a Valentine card.

The sketch from Paper Minutes is the design layout that I used for my Valentine card.

Of course, I have used a play on words: "deer" for "dear". The text says: You are so deer to me. Happy Valentine's Day.

Gothic Arches - Gypsies

This gypsy lady arch was done for Gothic Arches this week. The background is a portion of one of my watercolor paintings. The foreground is a clip art from Graphics Fairy.

Artarazzi

The whirligig design is our challenge for Artarazzi this week. I have made it an ornament on this small boy's hat. My background comes from Art Creations Friday. The little boy, colored with Photoshop Elements is from Retro Cafe Art. See detail.

Theme Thursday - Couple

This sweet couple has been married 51 1/2 years. She had surgery to remove a parotid gland tumor one month before the wedding. Her face was temporarily paralyzed (for 3 months) on the right side. That's why she's not smiling on the outside. She was definitely smiling on the inside. The theme this week for Theme Thursday is couple.

Digital Cozy

I decided to try a digital piece using the theme for Crazy Amigo, which was "cozy." Below is what I entered in the challenge. She was a sepia photo that I colored and gave a white fur stole and a fuzzy hat.

Four in One Challenges for Tuesday

Tuesdays are always busy since that is the day I do a volunteer craft class at the nursing home. But I found that I could combine Created by Hand (the word love), Arty Girlz (use of buttons), Crazy Amigo (idea of cozy), and the sketch given  in Paper Minutes' Tuesday Sketch.

The only one I was doubtful about was Cozy. Is holding hands and dressed for the weather cozy enough?

My image is from Graphics Fairy. The text is handwriten and taken from the love chapter of the Bible: I Corinthians 13.

Gothic Arches - Grunge

Not really sure what grunge is or what it's all about. I used an old background, added some splotches and a tree from Dover Publications. I'm sure some of my art has been unintentional grunge, and it will no doubt happen again. Take a look at what other artists have made for their grunge art at Gothic Arches.

Artarazzi

I took the photo provided us by Artarazzi challenge and changed it from black and white to sepia. I decided the background was too busy so I clouded around the edges and added the text: Forever friends. Since I'm close to these ladies in age, I know I appreciate my friends. Having lunch together in a park sounds like fun to me. I hope this entry isn't too simple for this challenge.

One Stop - Punch!

One stop challenge wants us to use a punch in our art today. Here is a Thinking of You card I made using my tiny heart punch.

Theme Thursday - Vintage Valentine

Vintage Valentine is the theme for Theme Thursday. My background image is one from Dover Publications. The foreground figure with the heart is from Graphics Fairy. This is a digital skinny (3" x 5").

Flourishes

Created by Hand challenge is featuring flourishes this week. Flourishes are really popular now and there are lots of wonderful stamps on the market. Here is my great-grandmother sporting a flourishy butterfly hat. There is also a flourish below her stamped in StaZon brown.

Gothic Arches - New Year

The Gothic Arches challenge theme this week is : New Year.

Here is my digital attempt at a gothic arch in ATC size.

Saturdays Workout - salt background

This colorful background was made by misting a glossy cardstock with water and dropping some of the inks onto it. When the surface was covered by dilute inks, I sprinkled large crystal salt on. To speed the drying I used the heat gun. Probably it is better to let it air dry. Then I brushed off all the salt and had a gorgeous tropical background. I decided to make a vacation type ATC from it. The salt technique was the theme this week for SaWo.

Artarazzi - Marilyn

Here is my entry to Artarazzi. It is a very simple alteration using numerous filters.  Other digital renditions of Marilyn can be seen on Artarazzi.

One Stop Craft Challenge Buttons or Brads

For this One Stop challenge I have used one of my butterfly brads. It seemed to fit well with the picture I had concocted digitally and printed out. The green background was from a swap, and I stamped and embossed it.

Sketch Saturday #32

This is for the Sketch Saturday for this week. My corners are from paper I sprayed and brushed with mica mixtures. The round backgrounds for the small butterflies is from a background swap from another group and was made by Nancy Lynn.

Theme Thursday - Something New!

Happy New Year 2009! Just a turn of a page and we have a brand new start of a year! Theme Thursday's theme for this week's challenge is "Something New." We are to use something new, either a new technique, a new stamp, anything new for us. I have chosen my new Stampendous butterfly stamp that my sister gave me along with my new Caran d'ache water-soluble crayons. The blue and purple background is by Mary Gilmour. It is a double stamped background I received in a swap. I can see I need more practice using the crayons, but I anticipate many hours of fun trying to perfect a technique.