PDCC - #62

This Play Date Cafe theme was a fun challenge. I got to use one of the new Whimsey digi-stamps I recently acquired (mouse in the cupcake). I colored this with my watercolor pencils. Behind the mouse is one of my watercolors. The lace background comes from June.

Theme Thursday - Pattern

Theme Thursday's theme is pattern. Zentangle was mentioned in the description of the challenge. It just happens that last night I made this zentangle while watching TV so I'm entering it for Theme Thursday. I used white gel pen on black cardstock.

The Three Muses - Books

Reading books was my favorite childhood pastime and until I started blogging it continued to be a favorite activity. I have gotten rather lazy in the reading department, unfortunately. Some day children will probably be as fascinated by the old way of reading (books) as we are by the old way of reading (scrolls).

The theme for the Three Muses Challenge this week is Books. I borrowed this book plate from some Dover Publications clip art. The books were googled. The little girl is a stamp of mine from Stubby Stampers.

Tag Tuesday - Christmas Leftovers

My tag for Tag Tuesday started out as a scrap of wrapping paper, which I turned over and used the back side. I stamped with my new rose stamp from my granddaughter. then I dabbed with a sponge some of the Moonshadow mica mists. The angel was cut out from a piece of used wrapping paper. The rose she is holding is again the stamp from my granddaughter which I have colored with Prismacolor pencils. The ribbon is also a leftover.

Artekarten - Recycled Gift Wrap

Art Cards (Artekarten) has as its theme: recycling gift wrapping paper and also using a stamp we just got.

The wrapping paper is from a gift from Akiko, my Japanese friend.The delightful stamp is one my granddaughter gave me for Christmas. I have colored the image with Prismacolor pencils. The text is handwritten.

Calm and Bright

Calm and bright is the theme for 4x4 Friday. We had a White Christmas! Between yesterday evening and now we've gotten about 4" snow with more coming, and the temperature is 30 °F. A snowy scene would be calm and bright, but I think I'll go Asian for this challenge. This is a peaceful piece I worked up a while back. I hope altering it a little and posting for this challenge is ok

From Hazel, I learned of a site where some beautiful watermarks are available. Shown is the one I ordered. I also got some lovely texts. One of the texts from Doodle Pantry is shown in my sidebar.

Merry Christmas, Blogger Friends

This was made using my new digi stamps from Whimsy Stamps.

Rainbow Lady - Favorite Topic in 2010

Rainbow Lady is challenging us this and next week to make art using our favorite theme(s) she had during 2010. Cynthia has furnished us with some of the best challenges in Blogland. I wish I had time to enter all of them. One of my favorites was Make your own Background. Another favorite was Make a Picture.

In this post I am using a background I made with various stamps and ink pads. The straight lines are where I stamped with tiny ink pads, bypassing a stamp. My great-grandfather is a Sheer Heaven® transfer. If you've never used this fantastic material, you must try it. Perfect transfers almost every time.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy - 3 Muses

Here is my entry for Tidings of Comfort and Joy, the theme for the Three Muses challenge.

I started with Anton Rafael Mengs' (1779) "The Adoration of the Shepherds". It was a freebie from Dover Publications, as was the angel. The shepherd is my husband, dressed for a cantata.

TMTA - Waiting for Santa

Here is my ATC for Think Monday Think ATCs. The Santa is a digi stamp from Whimsy Stamps. The large snowflakes are freebies from Dover. The smaller snowflakes are added digitally using a Photoshop Elements brush.

The Santa stamp came as a black and white outline image. I have colored it with my Prismacolor pencils.

My New Digi Stamps

One of the challenges that I enjoy is Keep it Simple. Some days I don't have a lot of time to spend at the craft desk and then at the computer so simple is nice. I won the prize from Whimsy Stamps in a recent challenge that Keep it Simple had. The 3 images plus two sets of sentiments is my prize. Each sentiment set has several different expressions. I have only shown 6 here. One set is based on crafts; one set is based on flowers. I'm eager to start using this generous prize from Whimsy Stamps.

Theme Thursday - tag

Here is my digital tag made from some Dover images plus a photo of my dh's granny and friends (colorized with PSE). This is my entry for Theme Thursday.

Snowflakes - Wednesday Stamper

Snowflakes! Wow, we have had a lot of them lately. Now Wednesday Stamper has us using them on our cards.

This started out as pearlized cardstock on which I dropped and spread alcohol inks. I have some white snowflakes that I made by smearing white gesso over a brass template. The small stamped snowflakes were made with a single tiny stamp. Some of the snowflakes were embossed and some have glitter glue on them. The purple snowflake was handcut so it is a bit wonky. The trees were stamped and embossed on designer paper and cut out. They are raised on little foam pads.

Vintage Delight

Using my post from Christmas foods, I have made this digital collage. All of these other images are from Dover Publications, except the "doctored" photo of me.

Vintage Delight is the theme for Rainbow Lady's Challenge this week.

Tag it On - Golden Haze

My tag for TIO - golden haze is made on tan decorative paper. I sponged around the edges with 3 colors of mica mists. There is a lot of gold in one but it doesn't show up in the top photo, which is a scan. I took the second picture with my camera against my gray tile floor. The gold shows better, I think, but the trees aren't as distinct.

MMM - Tis the Season

Here is a photo of our house all dolled up for Christmas. Every December 1 I get out the wreaths and put them up on the windows. In this part of the US we put white candles in the windows. I enjoy decorating the house each Christmas season.

Tis the season is the theme for Mixed Media Monday.

So Artful - Pink Christmas Trees

So Artful Challenges' theme this week is pink Christmas trees. I am not a fan of non-traditionaI Christmas trees. I used the tiny example given and changed the colors and sizes to create this scene. The sky background is actually made by misting some home made mica sprays onto watercolor paper. I have this background on my computer so I just used a portion of it for his digital ATC. The foreground snowlady is a water color I made a few years back. It is also on my computer. I thought it would be fun to combine these elements. I also painted some shadows in the snow using Photoshop Elements. The snowlady can also be seen on my Wordpress Blog.

Christmas Food

For Rainbow Lady's challenge today I have borrowed Dover's freebie which is a scene from A Christmas Carol. The pineapple is also a Dover freebie. I colorized and texturized this digital ATC using Photoshop Elements.

The Three Muses - Flowers

Flowers is the theme for the Three Muses challenge this week. There are no flowers outside in my part of the world. It's much too cold.

This 4x4 digital piece uses various freebie Dover items plus my pastel painting of the hummingbird,  greenery and pink flower.

Fun with ATCs - frauen

Here is my entry for Fun with ATCs where the theme is women.
I used a freebie Dezinaworld woman. The holiday greeting and the tree are from Dover.

TMTA - Round

My entry for Think Monday Think ATCs is from a watercolor painting I made.

Keep it Simple - Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly.
Fa la la la la la la la la! Here is my entry for Keep it Simple. I used solid color cardstock with a woven finish for my red and green. The white cardstock was stamped with a Christmas frame stamp someone gave me. The stamped holly was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

This beautiful image came to me from June of Dezinaworld. She had a challenge where everyone who entered won one of her digital sheets. This one is from Christmas Joy. The little girl looks like she is about to deck the halls with holly, so this digital art also fits in with the KIS theme. I added the white and the red borders.

Activities are picking up. There is a Sunday school party at my house this weekend, so I need to clean the house and decorate. I'd much rather do art than vacuum and dust, but duty calls. I may not get many posts in till next week but I'll try to make time to check on your art works.

Artekarten - Rainbow Lady

This is an entry for two challenges: Art Cards ( Christmas Ball ) and Rainbow Lady's ( Christmas Animals ).

Starting with the background: Card stock with the Versamark and brass stencil method. I used clear embossing powder and oversprayed with green mica spray. Sorry this doesn't show up well.

For the ball, I used a photo of a painting I made a few years ago, printed it and cut it out. The bunnies stamp was given to me and I don't know who the manufacturer is. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with mineral spirits.

A green card stock, a little glitter glue and Christmas ribbon completes the card.

Tag it On

Here is my entry for Tag it On where we are depicting on a stamped tag how time is flying as we get nearer to Christmas. The stamped white part is actually a cutout in the black tag.