Happiness is in the Little Things

Hello! 

I had to make this card for this challenge too!  Loves Rubber Stamps has a challenge to use a charm and when I found these leaf charms in my stash, I HAD to use them! 

The darling dragon is called Autumn Happiness made by Whimsey Stamps.  I coloured him in using my Stampin' Up markers and accented some with some metallic pens then cut him out. 
Started with a 6x12" piece of copper shimmer cardstock by Die Cuts With a View, folded in half.  I then placed a trimmed a 6x6' piece of Magenta mesh paper and a section of a leaf napkins cut with my deckle scissors.  One large cream skeleton leaf was overlapped by a wide ribbon piece from Costco.  Then I placed a blue skeleton leaf overlapping the ribbon, my adorable dragon and a small gold skeleton leaf.  I then placed my two charms and the leaf falling image in the top right.  To finish off is the greeting stamped then punched out and placed on the top left.  The seal is from the Magical Mini Letter Seals set from Whimsey Stamps.  'Happiness is in the little things'  Very true that.  I try to be thankful for that every day and especially today!  It's my 43rd birthday!  Yay! 

Love & Magic

Hello!

I've created this card for a challenge currently on at Loves Rubber Stamps: How Charming!  We need to use a charm.  Well I have charms!  Actually I have too many things!  So I went shopping in my stash and found these heart charms that would work very well!  I also used 2 different Whimsey Stamps.  This adorable little girl is called Hopeful.  She was a gift from my friend Judith, in Ontario. I also used the Love stamp from the Magical Mini Letter Seals set.  I used my Stampin' Up markers to colour her in and accented some bits with a metallic pen. 

I folded a 6x12 sheet of green shimmer cardstock from Die Cuts With A View.  (LOVE THIS SHIMMER STUFF!)  Freehand cut the heart, leaving a hinge at the top of both crests.  Used K& Co 6x6 paper from the Life's Journey pad and again freehand cut the heart from the centre of the paper.  Used exactly the same paper on the inside to give the card a 3D look.  Used some hemp cord to wind around the top left and hold the charms.  Behind my coloured cutie is a Grapevine Wreath heart sticker.  Stamped and punched the Love seal and placed it in the top right. 

On the inside is a punched heart placed over the cord to help keep it in place.

Go shopping in your stash!  You'd be amazed what you'll find! These charms were found a long time ago in the dollar store!  Hugs!

Projects

Hello!

I've been working ahead on some cards that I promised to swap with friends in the coming months...  The online Yahoo group I correspond with called OSA (Oriental Stamp Art) sets out challenges and we create within those outlines.  One that I have been doing all year is Black + one colour.  Each month is a different colour.  These are cards that I have done after those swap cards. 

This panda image is from About Art Accents.  Love the unique shape of it.  Dodecagon?  12 sided shape.  Some black and washi paper and an embossed Stampin Up kanji image.

No stamping on this one!  Black and washi papers, gold coloured charms and a New Year lucky envelope.

This gold bamboo printed acetate is one of my favourites!  So versatile!  It's by Mambi.  More black and washi paper and another embossed Stampin Up kanji image.  I do not have the stamps.  When I had access to them years ago, I stamped  off a bunch on white glossy paper and black embossed them.  Ready for when I need them!

I found these really cute magnetic bookmarkers at chapters and incorporated one on the top right.  The stamped silhouette is by Stampin Up, the kanji by Stamp Magick.  I believe the ribbons are self adhesive by Die Cuts With A View. 

So are you trying to get ahead on your projects this summer?

Favourite Fruit Colour Challenge

Hello!!!

This week at My Heart Pieces the challenge is "Use Your Favourite Fruit Colour".  Fruit hum?  Well I like all kinds of fruit.  I like raspberries, oranges, yellow apples, blueberries, grapes, strawberries... All individually though.  NOT as a fruit salad.  So I used multiple fruit colours! 

This image is called 'School Girl".  I coloured her with my water brush and watercolour crayons.  Once I trimmed the image, I matted her with black cardstock and then some white mulberry paper.  The 5x6.5" white card has bands of washi tape, printed tape, rub-ons and ribbon, all in black and white, along the left side of the card.  Then I place the matted image on top.  At the top corner is a purchased accent from my stash.

Hugs!

ArtWalk 2013

Hello!

I get inspiration from everywhere and when something attracts me, I take a picture.  I learned lately that my scrapbooking friends think this is a funny quirk of mine...  I've got a good sense of humour!  I can appreciate that I look silly at times taking pictures of odd things like:

This is a kid's coat at one of the schools I delivered lunches to this school year.

I have been trying to get to the White Avenue Art Walk here in Edmonton for a few years now. I would either forget the date or be working so I would miss it!  This year with the help of my Windows phone, I scheduled myself to be there last Friday with my baby, Kara. 

The brat would not stay next to me, look at me or come to me when I called.  She was only interested in looking at all the people and getting pats/attention.  Little flirt!  :) 

This is NOT a complete list of artists, for that check out  the official site.  These are just the ones that caught my attention and that I had a chance to chat with...

Melissa   http://edmonton-artists.wix.com/southsidesavvy#!melissa's-artwork
Allison Stang   http://owlwings.ca/
Carleen Ross   http://www.carleenross.blogspot.ca/Anthony Dunlop  "The Queer Deer"Kat Doell   https://www.facebook.com/phatkatcreativeTones & Textures   http://www.tonesandtextures.ca/#/homeAndrea Loney   http://anggeanouveau.com/ Donald Miskolzie   Spray Paint Artist Andrew Olivier  Wandering Whale.com Cindy Gillespie   Body part painting   Barbara Kowalewski   magnets  Daniel Evans   Http://cityofthreshold.blogspot.ca/2012/03/visions-of-threshold-cityscape.html  Joe Reimer    http://www.joereimerart.com/ Carol Collin   http://www.gypsyart.me/ Jayna Simpson    http://www.paintedplanet.org/   Misook Song       songmisuk@hotmail.com   Roderick Fuchs    www.fuchsart.comAllan Milne    http://allanmilne.com/   Andrea Meredith    http://www.andreameredith.com/artwork.html   Angie Rees    http://angierees.com/   Patrick Markle    http://www.patrickmarkle.com/    Leanna Isayew     http://www.isayew.com/index.html   Karly Lagore   http://collectivescribble.com/?page_id=20   Shelby Welch   http://www.designwelch.com/    Dominica W    Skull paintings    Roger Shaw    www.facebook.com/ArtByRoger

So walk around your hometown and get inspiration!  Go to local art stores, farmers markets, festivals!  You never know what will inspire you!  Hugs!

Where Bloggers Create 2013

Welcome!!

I am proud to be part of my second 'Where Bloggers Create'.  When I joined in last year I found some wonderful artists to follow and get inspired by.  I strongly recommend taking a day off, a series of snacks and settle in for a day of inspiration! 

My space has stayed basically the same as last year.  However, we did have a small flood last year just after I posted my space.  We needed to pull up the carpets and repaint the floor.  I lost a bit of supplies, but this gave me the kick in the pants I needed to go through and pare down the overflow of stuff I had.  I got rid of 4 binders worth and a pile of wood mounted stamps I was not really using.  I also filled about 4 boxes full of papers and ephemera that I would not use anytime soon.  I would eventually use it up, but my hubby had put his foot down to make my semi-hording more manageable.  Got rid of restrictive shelving and replaced it with a system that works for me.  Here we go!

Walking in the basement area I share with my hubby Jim.  He builds and flies radio controlled airplanes.  He has the left side, I have the right side.

Starting at my view out the room (and of the TV and stereo to keep us company) and my work area.

 

 



Facing me now is a series of Iris shelves from Michaels that hold those 12x12 clear cases.  I use these almost exclusively for storage and for storing elements of projects in motion.  Above that is two Ikea bath medicine cabinets that I adapted to hold most of my inks.  The rest of my inks and other colouring implements are on the iris carts below.

Now going counter clock wise around my side of the room is the wall of Ikea shelving arranged for my needs.  The end unit has the remnant of my traditional scrapbooking that I am trying to sell or have plans for, along with 12x24  and rolled paper.  The top has my Gelli printing kit and other storage.  Then comes two rows of 12x12 boxes with element stored by colour or major theme.  I've discovered that when crafting I am colour influenced first, so I store all my embellishments, ribbons, etc in these boxes by colour.  All labeled for easy identification.

Next come two rows with my stamps on cling mount and stored in binders.  then some more Iris carts with more ephemera storage.  at the far left bottom is the start of my tools storage.

This built in cubby is the reason I called dibs on this side of the room :)  I have the bulk of my tools in these Iris carts with drawers.  All labeled so I can remember where everything is.

Next is my pride and joy... a lateral filing cabinet that holds 12x12 in the top drawer and 81/2 x 11 in the bottom.  On either end is two regular short filing cabinets that I've had since childhood.  The green one holds envelopes and the brown one holds computer paper and labels. On top is an old table top cut down to make more storage for my Cuttlebug, dies and smaller pieces of paper.  One of the BEST tips I got last year was to cut down all scraps to 6x6" and recycle the rest.  It helped cut down my piles of partly used paper and allowed me to USE the pieces I have!  I compromised and also made a box for 8x8" and 5x6". 

And that brings us back to my work area!  Hope you enjoyed this tour and if you have any question or comments to make, please do!  I love feedback!

Another Peacock!

Hey there! 
I have been playing and helping a friend and cleaning up around here...
Just to find the time to sit down and blog! 
So I've been playing around with that peacock image from My Heart Pieces and came up with another card. 

I used my watercolour crayons and water brush for this image and cut it and its mat out with Spellbinders Labels 2.  Used a different peacock napkin and matted it with the same colour mat.  placed both on a shimmer blue mat then onto a teal card. I wrapped the whole thing with blue and teal fuzzy yarn from my stash. 

Have fun playing!

My Favourite Things

Books, falling leaves and some time to create in,
Dogs, cats and almost all the animal kingdom,
A rainbow of colours, especially teal,
These are a few of my favourite things!

Ok, so I'm not a good song writer, but I do love the original song from Sound of Music very much!  This week at My Heart Pieces we were to create something with our favourite thing.  Ya right!  How to pick A favourite!  I have always been fascinated by peacocks though and they wear one of my favourite colours: teal.  I have a few peacock feathers that I treasure and keep in a display in my home. 

So I used 'Peacock' from Priyanka's collection of images and coloured it in with my Stampin Up! markers.  Cut it out with my Spellbinders dies and then used the larger die to cut a mat out of Evergreen POW Glitter paper.  This is one of my largest cards at 6 1/8 x 8 1/4 ".  The bottom layer is Double Mates Terrific Teal punched in the two corners with an EK Success Corner Punch and some unknown paper tucked into the corners.  Then another piece of Double Mates paper in the top right corner.  Then a panel from a napkin.  Then I used some fuzzy yarn wrapped around the right side of the card.  Finally the mounted peacock panel! 

 

 

What are some of YOUR favourite things?