Monday, June 29, 2015

IO Challenge - Celebrate You!

impression_obsession_
Link to the IO challenge

Stamp:  F1097 Mixed Flowers- Impression Obsession
Archival black ink on water color paper
colored with Lyra Aquacolor

Thank you to Impression Obsession for inspiring!  
Love IO! 
I pulled out this stamp and I had a purple piece of card stock already cut for the card base so I tried to make my coloring match my card base!

In life, flowers are always a celebration!

(A celebration that we made it to Summer!  :) )

I think I like the end result,  Might add in black pen; Happy Birthday or Congratulations!  
in real life, the card does look a bit better than this pic!  


Thanks for looking!  Happy Summer!  :)


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Tuesday

To be home on a Tuesday is very rare!  But no obedience class and no physio!
I went fencing for a while;  I'm not very good at it but I try!  One week, I was taking fence down;  now I'm putting some up!  It is all about my dogs safety!

I am thankful that I'm know some of the bad weeds for id!  pulled curled dock in one field and found more nightshade when I was fencing!  Colts foot is now here too!  I hand weed as much as I can.  Smother areas with black plastic, mulch with peat/ straw/cardboard/ wood chips;  hand dig using the soil wedge as my weed control!  I don't use our rotter tiller!  I hill everything too much now to make it's use practical and My arm hurt too bad after using it!  .... And soil is not dirt!  :)

As some of you know,  our weim has separation anxiety so she is with me pretty much all the time!  She owns me!  our youngest sheltie loves me; our smallest and oldest sheltie, Hates me!  'that 'about sums it up!   But the grey ghost of Germany gives me confidence!  She is an awesome dog,  she make me feel safe and she is a motivator!  She and our youngest  love their walks to the lake!  Nothing is better seeing them free and happy!  And then swimming!  :)  I'm pretty lucky!





 Last week I should have been going to the senior home and making cards with them.....but didn't get it organized in time!  So because I felt guilty, I took T in for a visit!  Visiting with the dogs is a great "feel  good day"!  I need to do that more!  And I have been asked to make cards with another group of residence in another wing!  It is great to make others happy!

So this is what I've been working on the rain days!.....nothing finished!  2 boxes;  2 shingles and little water color! I think I messed up with putting some non water color paper in the correct envelope/folder!    I'm not very good at telling the difference with some of the papers!  I use to buy watercolor paper from Tia in Windsor and  I always put it in a special place since it just looked like regular card stock!  Water color is a whole new world!  :)  The light piece of paper with the rose;  didn't like the water paints!  So I  messed up!

The shingle with the farm;  not liking it!  Almost painted over the whole thing today!  Maybe my next "play date" my friends will help me fix it!
Painting still is so much quicker!  this with some wire or jute; or maybe a cluster if twigs; or rye!  Lots of ideas!   I goofed on the letter L a bit!  But maybe out of style? Tole painting! What is old is new again?  Crafting does make me happy!



Thanks for stopping and  looking!  have an awesome week!
 

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Tool

It is really foggy here this morning!  I'm hoping to get out soon; always; lots to do!  Yesterday I spent the morning and part of the afternoon cleaning;  not my house!  I have a long ways to go!  And hoping to have a great inspiration!  :)

Anyway, made a quick card this morning!  Little over board with the glue! my Rubber cement pickup by Heinz Jordan & Co. Ltd. was just the thing!  I got mind from Nika's in Windsor!  Thanks Nika for pointing it out one day!

Have a great day everyone!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Monday

Been outside weeding and planting!  and more pumpkin planted, Pumpkin for my dogs!  :)  So quick post so I can play with the geli prints before supper!  I have an idea with the hydrangea to try!  :)


Pansy and rose stamps:  hollyberry house (from Nika's in Windsor)



Last night I used my new flower shaper tool;  makes life pretty quick for shaping the petals!  :)  Like it!  (colored watercolor paper/die cut:  with water soluble pastels; distress ink and tattered angels mist)


Thanks for looking!  Have a great day!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Rain Day Wednesday!

Good Day!  :)  It is "wetting" outside so I get to "play" inside today!

What a mess I have made!  But I have had fun making it!  So hoping I can be quick with my post!  Soon off to get supper on the go' !

Gelli Arts printing plate!  How cool!  Monoprinting!  Used my old delta paints and extender!
No master piece but it still was fun!
Can't wait to get the new inks that Nika http://www.nikapaperarts.com/  has in her store to try!  I like that shine effect that they give!  But another day I might try my glass paints!  They have the finished look to them!  So time will tell!  :)




Stamped the image (Hollyberry House) with archival black and cut it out!  

So another new product to play with!  Water soluble Oil Pastels!  They are so awesome too!  Did I say how much I love all these "tools"?
My little blending tool is the dollar store foam sticks cut to my desire!  Dip it in water.....or not!  
FUN!

Not finished!  But it was fun and thought I would share since I don't know when I will get back on here!

I also made some boxes today!  I didn't take a picture of them......I should have!
So so easy and very useful!  Nika's store has so many ideas!  She is always demoing her knowledge
and tricks!  She'll show you too.... if you go to visit!  

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Brush Care

On the weekend I was crafting!  I needed to apply some gesso!  so I pulled out my brush box!  Wow!  I have a lot of brushes!  But a lot of them are 20 + years old!  I always took the time and cleaned them properly!

Acrylic paints are really hard on brushes!    I have used a number of products over the years to clean!  But I guess my favorite is my little jar of paint soap and the lid has texture for working the soap and paint from the bristles!  This weekend I couldn't find that so I just used my glycerin soap and my hand!  (I also was fond of Murphy's oil soap)

So here are some of my rules!

  •  often rinse while painting;  as soon as the paint gets less than 1/2 way up the fibers; I rinse!
  • lay flat to dry!
  • don't leave a brush standing in the water dish;  it bends the bristles
  • use cold water to wash the brushes!
Now I have another set for watercolor painting!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Sorry! Computer issues!

I have noticed that I keep getting these "pop" ups and open in a window/tab when I'm "blogging"  !
Our Internet speed is horrible!  5 o clock till 7:15 AM is okay!  So I get quickly discouraged  when on the web because of speed / time / patient issues!  less than 2 years on "high speed"  (not the real deal!) ;  dial up before this!  But I'm lucky that I have better than dial up now!

I see that one of my posts on a blog has a ""pop" up ad in it now!  So sorry if I am causing this computer glitch!  I'm not running Windows so not the same issues as most!   But this is so like a windows issue!

Anyway;  I will try learn about this and fix but time is that limiting factor!
My apologizes!

Add June 10th:  It was google chrome causing my issues!  So I just won't use it!  :) All is great!


Rain Day!

cold and wet here!  So got to "play" inside yesterday!
All cards were made "mail" friendly!
IO / gorjuss stamps
 I should have put a "layer" on for the "congratulations"......But like always,  always in a hurry!  :(
I "goofed" on the face too!  Always check your pen or brush before going to your finished piece!  Yeah,  I'm really really bad for that one!   I can hear my friend.......slow down....take your time!  I colored the image with the Lyras;  quick;  awesome!  Then found my versa marker;  to "paint" the image and then emboss;  the first place I touched was the face with the dirty marker!  So then used my brush and bottle of re-inker! Embossed!   Then gelatos for the background;  so quick and easy!
(Thank you to Nika's for showing/reminding of this resist technique)  And hand cut my little grad hat!  :)




Hollyberry House stamp/ clearly wordsworth

Hollyberry House stamp
 http://hollyberryhouse.com/blog/?page_id=856

You can see nicer samples here!  3-D!
I was having fun water coloring!
Maybe tonight I will get to try some more!  With layers!

 Sun is shining now;  off to work!  Hopefully it was too cold for the ticks and they went back to hibernate!   :)

Nika's in Windsor has many of Hollyberry House stamps !
Hollyberry House / die-namites die cut
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!  :)

ps. Sale:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nika-PaperArts-Supplies/334340863423456