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!

Wise owls

I love looking for patterns and shapes in wood and stone. The tricky thing about it is if you don't quickly capture the image on paper, you lose it! Look away and when you look again it becomes something else. 

I was sitting on the balcony of a log cabin staring at one of the posts when I saw these owls. 

I left a blank page where I'm going to paste the photos below into my journal.

Can you see the owls in the logs? Or do you see something else?

Monkey See Monkey Do

My little five year old loves to work on his "projects" just like Momma.

Today he comes into my studio, announcing he needs some paint and paper for a new project.

I clear off my table, moving my books in progress far out of splash-range. I set up a placemat on the table, a tarp over my rug, and an apron over his clothes and let him go to town.

Apparently he was inspired by my art journals! This was all him, no prompting from me at all. Children have such a talent for color!

Chinese Fortune Cookies

Do any of you bloggers have trouble with individuals who leave comments in another language and then a link to a nasty website?  It seems they have found my blog and leave comments in abundance. I wish I could block them, but that is not possible with this platform. 


This is why I moderate my comments, but apparently they haven't figured that out yet! Or maybe they just don't care and enjoy wasting time, hoping for just one comment to slip through and be published.

I thought it would be interesting to translate some of their posts, minus the x rated material. It turned out to be kind of funny, like getting a fortune cookie via my blog every day. Watch out, I might start looking forward to them!


Here is a good one, "Patience is a bitter plant, but the fruit is very sweet." That one has my name all over it. Patience is not one of my strong points. 


And for those of us feeling burnt out, "Persist for a certain purpose or goal, and continuous efforts towards the direction of an established concept." 


And now a bit of humor...something must have gone awry in translation--


"Survival but continued fighting in the heart and soul; writing is sitting their trial."


"Unless a tree in spring bloom, otherwise the result is unlikely in the fall."


Uh huh. 


I'm certain I will have more great material for you, as they will be attempting to leave numerous comments on this post as well! Tee hee!