In my green house....

Here is my entry for the In My House challenge. The theme was to use green...well, my house that I live in is green and here is my house in artsy form....thanks for looking!!

We May Shut our Eyes....

The theme for 4 x 4 Friday challenge is use your favorite color....well, now, that IS a challenge! But if you looked at my beads you'd know that my all time favorite color is turquoise, aqua, verdigris, blue-green, whatever name you want to call it....it is my dearest favorite and for a long, long time, EVERYTHING I made was this color...thanks for looking!

Butterfly image and masonite window are from Retro Cafe Art. If you haven't seen all the wonderful things they have, you must go sneak a peek...

"Oh, dear, you're making me flourish...."

I have been working on this background piece for about a week, adding layers and layers of colors. I started with a 4" x 4" piece of clayboard. I painted it, put molding paste on it, stamped flourishes, embossed it ( don't be surprised if you see molding paste and embossing powder on EVERYTHING....I might even try it on my walls...I keep saying that, wonder what the hubbie would think/??/) and topped it off with a bit of irredescent copper paint (very fine Golden). I took her all over inside and out trying to find good photos...thanks for looking...I'm off to weed my neglected garden!!

Poppies!!!

I have been messing around with a bunch of atc sized backgrounds. I used my wonderful new Golden paints and some gold embossing powder. I have never been a stamper until now because I figured I had enough money wrapped up in all of my other crafty adventures but what a great product that embossing powder is! I love the effect and it's so fun to watch it change! I thought this was simple but pretty...thanks for looking!

Art it Up

This is the entry for this week's Wednesday Stamper and the challenge is to use the word ART in your work! I have been working on different backgrounds and this was a gessoed piece of cardboard, layered with paint and molding paste into which I stamped. Then I used multiple layers of paint and metallic rubs, and stamped in gold ink. I smashed on the eyelets pretty hard to give them texture and used a couple small pieces of my new French paper that I bought for myself on Mother's Day.....love that paper!! Thanks for lookin!!!

In my house...there is a girl!

I made this piece for my cousin, Paula. She is retiring from teaching this year and I wanted to give her something special. I was the flower girl in her wedding when I was about 5 years old. The theme for the In My House challenge was a little girl and the theme for the Created by Hand challenge was to use fabric. I used a vintage velvet flower and ribbon to accent my girl.  It also meets the challenge for Theme Thursday which is celebrate girls....thanks for looking!!

Cheap fun!!

This is part of a brainstorm I had yesterday when I was looking for SOMETHING to do while my son was in Phy. Ed. class. I have to keep my hands busy and I am short attention span central!!!! I have done the famous Zentangles, had to add color after one, and wanted something fun and portable like those. So, I went to my studio and started thumbing through all the cheap scrapbook paper tablets that I have purchased in the past. I took these two papers, my fine point Micron marker, my white paint pen and went to town! I started with the pink and white paper. Then I remembered I had a stamp with a similar design!! So I first traced the white squiggles, then I stamped and then I went to town with the black and white!! I left the progression so you could see what I did and the black and white floral is still boring me so I might have to add some turquoise and red.....

Anyway, just wanted to share and hope you try it!!

Weekly challenge....is to make challenges!!

It's been a busy week so far and last night we had to put down our sweet, old kitty...goodbye Lydia, we have loved you much...

Here are some of my challenge combinations for the last week:

The first one is a garden fairy card I made for my mother-in-law.

The butterfly is an inchie for Small World of Inchies and the theme is wings.

The green and brown Woman Waiting is inspired by the tea bag fortune (from a bag of Yogi Tea) stating "Recognize the other person is you". It meets the Thursday Theme and the Mixed Media Monday challenges of use coffee or tea and use a transparency. I've used a piece of mica over my woman.

I wish you peace...and thank you for looking...

Mother's Day

It was rainy and chilly here on Saturday but that didn't stop me from visiting my favorite art supply store in St. Paul, Wet Paint! This is what I ask for instead of a gift, a trip to the art store, all by myself. I had to park a couple streets over and walking in the rain, I saw the most amazing Magnolia tree! I didn't even know we had those here in MN!! I was enthralled and just explored that beautiful tree, in the rain, for about 15 minutes! I was so sad that I didn't have my camera, note to self: bring camera everywhere!! After a delightful visit with Vera, the paper lady, I ended up with an incredible hand made French paper, some beautiful Japanese papers sample packs, Golden Paints, mica and other goodies that I can't wait to try out!! If you are ever in St. Paul, you must go to Wet Paint and check out their papers, they have books and books of papers from all over the world and nobody knows their paper better than Vera!! On Sunday, we went to check on our property in Wisconsin. This is the meadow where the bluebirds live. We have a new bird there, I think it's some kind of warbler...anyway, all was well, the birds were there and my son was exploring the woods and came upon a fox bringing a mouse to the kits in her den. We also went by our favorite fishing bridge and the water is high. We were in a terrible drought here so it's nice to see the small rivers and wetlands wet again....