Monthly Stamp Club Cards

Once a month I attend a stamp club meeting where we make cards. I used to really be into rubber stamping but don't do much of it any more. I go to the meetings mainly to be around other artsy people and get inspired. And it helps when birthdays roll around...I can dig through my stash and pull something out for almost any occasion!

Rarely do I make the card exactly like the sample. I like to change it up and do my own thing. The one on the right is mine (the top of it got cut off in the scanner). The little white flowers have a 3D effect. Lay the flower on a surface with a little give, like a foam mat. Take the eraser end of a pencil and push in the center until the flower begins to buckle.

Here is another sample, the left side is the instructor's card, the right is mine. The flower was made from a punch, with a little black circle and a pearl in the center.

The top one is mine. I wanted to layer the circle with a larger white circle underneath, but that was not available so I did the next best thing I could think of--brush the edges with the white ink pad. The brown kraft paper was ridged to look like wainscoting using a scoring blade of a paper trimmer at 1/2" intervals, then lightly sponged over with brown ink.

I'll try to remember to post next month's cards and make this a series. Hopefully these images will inspire you to make your own cards!

All stamps copyright Stampin Up.

Walkabout

I think I'll go on a walkabout

And find out what it's all about and that ain't hard

Just me and my own two feet...

A walk could cure

Almost all my blues

Bare feet or in my two shoes...

I think I'll go on a walkabout

And find out what it's all about

--Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Walkabout"

I took my little boy out for a walk with our journals to sketch things that caught our eye. He isn't quite coordinated enough to hold the book and sketch at the same time, so he'd park himself on the curb and draw. I'm sure the neighbors thought we were nuts.

We repeated the exercise while on vacation. It is really cool to look back on now a month later. I can remember everything exactly how it was and where I was standing when I sketched it. I never imagined these pages could capture those memories so well, even better than a photograph would!

I absolutely HAD to show you this though, as my sketch doesn't do this fire hydrant justice. This is the skinniest hydrant I've ever seen!!

Art Journal page: birds

Just popping in to say a quick hello. I have been busy with lots of last minute orders for Labor Day weddings. It's amazing how many people are getting married over the holiday weekend!

I wanted to show you a before and after shot of an art journal page I did--

Here I actually painted the bird first. I had a library book on painting birds and needed to return it before the fines started racking up, so I grabbed my art journal and started working on blank pages.

Then I added a wash of color using a pigment ink pad and the direct-to-paper (DTP) technique. I chose the ink pad because it was easy to work around the bird without the color running onto him. I used the Colorbox brand Petal Point pads (I also like the Cat's Eye pads too) for this technique. They're wedge shaped and easy to use.

Then the bird just sat there for weeks until I thought of something relevant to write on the page--a story commemorating "Mama Bird" and the sad loss of her one of her little ones.

A happy ending to this story is the babies come by to visit us several times a week. One likes peeping out from under the shed at us and another seems to enjoy sitting by the water hose. They are so sweet!