Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Home Sweet Home

My entry for Rainbow Lady's Challenge (home sweet home) started out as a watercolor painting, which I put in my "things for the blog" folder on my computer. I used with it a photo of my Uncle Robert and his baby brother Leslie in front of their home (and Uncle Robert's new car). These combined photos were printed out and stamped with one of my new Stampin' Up stamps.

I'm forever getting Dragons Dream and Rainbow Lady mixed up. That's why this is a tag. I thought I was doing TIO! LOL!!! Oh, the joys of old age.

Think Monday Think ATCs - Fairy Tales

I cut my teeth on fairy tales. My mother read them to me when I was just a toddler. When I learned to read, I just couldn't get enough of the Brothers Grimm and other fairy tale writers.

Here is my Fairytale ATC for TMTA. I used Karen's images for the illustrations of Jack and the Beanstalk. The brown and yellow background is something I made on cardstock last night.

Gothic Arches Challenge - Openings

It's been a long time since I've been able to enter something for this challenge. Openings is the topic for Gothic Arches this week. Frankie supplied us with a beautiful inspiration piece. I thought of the picture Patty had taken of the gothic window (a sort of openings) so I used that along with some things with real openings like the key and the ironwork gate. Thanks, Patty, for allowing me to use your gorgeous picture. And thanks to Dover Publications for their freebies.

3-way challenge entry

My digital card started out with the crinkle distress background (Art Cards Challenge). Art Creations Friday provided the image of a girl in the sailor dress. So when I saw that Jeanette at So Artful Challenge wanted us to do something depicting: I am Woman, I decided to make a family. The images of mother and children are from Jamie. The girl on the right is from Art Creations Friday.

Tag It On - 40

Tag it On challenges us to use what is on our desks for this week's challenge. Well, I am so lucky. Today my desk is a complete mess. I have been working on several projects so I have just about everything out on my desk. Everything on this tag was at my arms reach on top of the desk. I used a piece of watercolor paper I had previously sprayed with homemade glimmer mists. I stamped all over with my new SU stamp with my new SU ink pad. The mouse was the only other stamp on the desk so I had to use him. The flowers had already been punched out so I triple layered them.

Theme Thursday - Beauty

The theme for Theme Thursday this week is Beauty. I chose to use this gorgeous image from a former Art Creations Friday challenge. My tag's background is various alcohol inks.

CQC34 Tag Tuesday Fun with ATCs

Whenever I try to do more than one challenge with one art piece, I find that I haven't done justice to any of the challenges.

Anyway, here is my 3-way challenge entry: CQC34 (colors certainly celery, ballet blue, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, kraft, and white), Tag Tuesday (your own hand), and Fun with ATCs (using a postage stamp).

TMTA - Ships, Boats

My ATC for the TMTA challenge contains various Dover Publications freebies. The ship is the American clipper "Lightning" from 1854.

Picket Fence

Jeanette at SoArtful Challenges is challenging us this week with this picture of a lawn enclosed by a white picket fence. Here is my entry using a couple of the wonderful Dover freebie images.

One Stop Craft Challenge - Birthstone

My entry for One Stop uses some interesting background paper from Dover Publications. The birthstone is a picture of my opal necklace. No, I'm not sending out a card with my actual gemstone on it!

Art Cards Challenge - faux marble

I absolutely love this technique that I tried for the first time today. It's called faux marble and is the theme for Art Cards Challenge this week. Here is where you can find the tutorial for doing this.

My backing paper and part of the "marble" are from a set of decorator papers I got from Michael's and I can't find any names on it.

This 4x4 is also being entered into the 4x4 Friday challenge. which is a free theme.

Art Creations Friday

Here is my entry for this week's Art Creations Friday. I had fun with this one, using Dover images with the image provided by ACF. The trees, stars, and grasses are digital brushes.

New York, New York!

New York, New York! is the theme for this week's challenge with the Rainbow Lady. New York's nickname is the Big Apple, which gave me the opportunity to use a stamp given to me recently. The background is cardstock on which I used Moonglow Starburst inks (aren't they the neatest thing?). I thought of the excitement of New Year's Eve at Time Square and all the fireworks everywhere on that night. These starbursts represent the fireworks and pizzazz that is New York's.

Tag it on - Journey with a Ticket to Ride

Dragon's Dream Tag it On Challenge has as its theme this week: Journey with a Ticket to Ride. Since I just got 2 travel brochures in the mail yesterday, I had much fodder for a travel-related tag. I used the one offering a cruise to Sydney Australia and on to the Great Barrier Reef for the collage part of the tag. Part of the background is handmade mica mists. My stamp was a group of fish, of which I used two, and then heat embossed. The stamp was by Embossing Arts Co. The embossing powders were Moon Glow's Venus violet blue and midnight sapphire. 

The 3 Muses - Relationships

Mammy and Mama

This is a picture of my mother and her mother's mother in 1909. This is my entry  for The Three Muses.

Tag Tuesday - 52

My tag for Tag Tuesday is celebrating the challenges 52nd week. Also, the number 52 is significant to me in that my dh and I have been married 52 years (53 this year).

The lace represents the beautiful lace in the wedding dress.
The trees in the background represent the honeymoon in a cabin in a state park.
The flower represents the bouquet created by my mother-in-law, a floral judge.
The handmade paper cast flourish is there to say that even the most mundane of lives need a little splash of pizzazz every now and then.

TMTA - Fish

Probably too simplistic for this challenge, but here is my ATC for this week for Think Monday Think ATCs. I used a background of misted alcohol inks (homemade). I stamped the fish and other sea objects onto white card stock which I colored with Prismacolor pencils. The edges were cut with Fiskar Wave scissors. I put the navy cardstock to bring out the orange of the fish. The kaleidoscope embossing around the scalloped edges doesn't show up on this scan.

The Bear's Picnic - So Artful

So Artful Challenges has as its prompt this week a couple of really cute bears from Dezinaworld. I used the Twiggy bear. This tea party scene is one of the Dover freebies. Also the impressionist painting I used as a background is thanks to Dover.

ACF 74

This lovely lady in the straw bonnet was our prompt for the Art Creations Friday challenge this week. I combined her with a piece of sheet music, a freebie from Dezinaworld.

Theme Thursday - butterflies

My digital butterflies art is for Theme Thursday.

Tag it On! - Along the River

My friend Janet is the guest designer for this week's Tag it On! Challenge and has given us such a beautiful pastoral river scene. 

I chose to use my watercolor which I posterized and reduced in size using Photoshop Elements. I printed it out and adhered it to heavy cardstock. The "dream" is a clear See D's stamp. I thought the word was appropriate for several reasons. The first is that the real name of this challenge is dragons dream tag it on. The second is that sometimes catching fish is only a dream.

CQC32

Colour Queen Challenge  is using these 3 colors plus black and white for the challenge this week.

I don't have the designer papers so I downloaded the 3 colors to my computer and got the hexadecimal value so that I could get as close as possible to the color in the example. Then I printed out these blocks of color to work with. I cut my printed out paper for the bands of color on my card and for the flower. The black and white parts of the card are card stock. The text is one of my stamps, embossed in detail white.

Tag Tuesday - Inspiration from Home

My entry hall flowers in the copper vase from Mexico is my inspiration for my tag for Tag Tuesday.

I used a watercolor paper I sprayed Moon Shadow mists on. I then rubbed Pearl Ex (copper) around the edges. Sorry the shine didn't come through on this photo (only on the blurry one!). The flower consists of a couple of Stampin' Up stamps and Stampin' Up die cuts, some of which I rubbed with an ink pad. I used a copper wire for the hanger to match the copper vase.

TMTA - Travel

A while back I read about adding gum arabic with water to Pearl Ex to make it stay fast to the paper. Of course, gum arabic doesn't come in tiny containers, so I wound up with probably my lifetime supply. So after reading about how Janet used mineral spirits with her pencils, I decided to experiment with my g. a. today, using it with the pencils. It actually blended them pretty well.

Then I discovered that the g. a. gave things a nice sheen and seemed to brighten the colors. So for my ATC here, I did a paper collage from a travel folder and then coated the finished product with g. a.
Think Monday Think ATCs' theme is travel.

A Special Day for Mothers

After struggling with the  2-day off and on service with our service provider, we think we now have internet again. Just in time to say to all the mothers: Happy Mother's Day.

I have heard from both my offspring so i will retire tonight a happy woman.

This mother and child are freebies from Jamie.

So Artful Challenges - Fragrance

This is an altered png b&w image of a stained glass window from Dover Publications. I have placed over that the image of a pastel painting I did. The pastels were painted through the openings in a brass template. (Enlarged, everything looks fuzzy. That's because of the chalks.) I figure that the blossoms that attract the hummingbirds must have some sort of fragrance. Hope this one is ok for the challenge. So Artful challenges us to use the prompt: fragrance.

Mrs. Sallie Rhea in her new fishing hat

Mrs. Sallie Rhea was invited to participate in the 4th Annual 2-Fly Fishing Tournament as a guide for one of the wounded soldier-fishermen. She purchased what she hoped would be an appropriate chapeau.

Her warrior-fisherman did beautifully on the stream and ultimately took home one of the awards.

More about the Project Healing Waters organization, sponsors of the 2-Fly tournament, can be seen here. My own picture of the warriors and their guides is on my other blog,

The challenge for 4x4 Friday is Hat-itude. My background is actually a photo of the Rose River. Mrs. Sallie Rhea is one of my ancestors. I doubt she ever caught a trout, especially on a fly.

Rainbow Lady and Colour Create

Khaki, aqua, cream and brown are the colors that Colour Create has chosen for this week's challenge. And Rainbow Lady has us using our own created backgrounds instead of designer paper. I spend most of my craft time making backgrounds so this was just up my alley.

The background consists of Moon Shadow mists and Pearl Ex mica powders.

Key to my heart: flowers

This tag is for two challenges, both requiring a real stamp (heart): Tag it On  (key) and Wednesday Stamper (flowers).

Happy Birthday and Orange, Blue, Black

I hope this card is orange, blue and black enough for Paper Minutes challenge this week. With the Happy Birthday greetings, it should satisfy the requirements for Crazy Amigo challenge (Birthday). This is my Li'l Redhead, who usually wears a red and white shirt and has a tan straw hat.

TMTA - green

Here is my digital ATC using a background from ACF, some Dover butterflies, and two of my ancestors as postage stamps. Think Monday Think ATCs has some interesting green entries this week.

A Lovely Bouquet - Anything but a Card

This arrangement of artificial flowers is one that I designed for my entry hall. One Stop wants us to show art that is anything but a card. So Artful wants us to show a lovely bouquet. So this is my entry for both challenges.