White Negative

OK last post for today!
I have a friend who had a birthday this month and I promised myself I would make her a card this year. I learned this technique at a workshop at Archiver's a couple of weeks ago and then found that it is also a TJ technique this issue! I made the focal piece in both pink and purple, just to practice and decided I would send the other one to my TJ "one-0n-0ne" partner for this month. I LOOOVVE this technique! It could not be easier. Just use a negative-style stamp and heat-emboss in white, then color/paint it in! You pretty much CAN'T color ourside the lines! Purple for Linny and pink for my TJ partner.

Pen, Ink and Watercolor

OK -first I have to apologize. I just realized that I posted the Asian girl ATC twice -OOPS! Oh well, I really like her!

Anyway, on to the next. I joined this swap to get mayself into one of my "uncomfortable" places...Hand drawing! (SCA-A-ARY!) I sort-of cheated. I read a few years ago about someone who did line-drawn animals quilted onto pillows and such. You could have her make them of YOUR pet and one of the ways she did this was to use tracing paper over a picture to dreate her lines. Well, I tried it with some of my digital photos and it works great!! In this case, I used a picture of V enjoying the sun coming in the window one day. I just pull up the pic on my computer, tape a piece of paper on and use the most prominent lines in the picture to create my drawing. I then scanned my drawing and reduced the size so it would fit on an ATC, then used a lightbox to make each ATC essentially the same. (They are not all EXACTLY the same, though). It worked really well. The biggest problem I had was just the bumpiness of drawing on watercolor paper -I've never done that before. Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the result!

Watercolored using re-inker and waterbrushes.

I Dare You to Call Me Cute!

I also made a single card for an ATC Friend that is sending me a gorgeous Geisha card. I asked her what she would like and she said anything except cute-n-cuddly, so I promised her I'd make something "un-cuddly". I was going thru my stashes of stuff and came across a set of glossy stickers that are made for your Punk teenage girls and one said "I Dare You to Call Me Cute!" and Inspiration struck! Its hard to see in the pic, but the skull is done with pink, glittery embossing powder. I put the title sticker on the back as it was a pretty big sticker and wouldn't have left much room for anything else! I hope it tickles her funny bone!! I brushed off the embossing powder where this stamp has a Jack-O'Lantern on it and put the cherry there instead. Black Sharpie scribbled on gives the background more texture (and covers a small OOPS! that really still shows if you're looking :( )

Busy in my studio!!

I have several pics of some new ATC's to add I may do them in separate posts (just easier!)

First I'll show you a couple that I made for the girls who won the "Winner Takes All" swap for Feb. One said that one of her favorite themes is Asian and I made this card for her.

The other one had "House Mouse" as one of the things that she likes and I have 3 House Mouse stamps so I made this one for her.

The 3 stamps I have all are bought because they spoke to me about my own life. This one shouted out about a teddy bear that Veronica has and when she was younger she just about wore his fur off! His name is Travis and he hashas the little pellets in his butt, feet and hands. His feet got a little worn out and his "beans" started to fall out, so I did a little "surgery" on Travis. We kept saying that he was spilling his beans, so this one is titled "Travis Spilled the Beans". My almost 21-yr old still feels the little baby mouse's anxiety over if her friend will get better! She likes this stamp as much as I do!

A few ATC's to share

I think I will try to go chronologically here... I few weeks ago I had just joined the ATC World Yahoo group, and I decided to jump right in to a swap with the theme of "winter clothes". What is your favorite warm item of clothing in the winter? I have always been one to have bare feet as my feet usually get hot and I even have to stick them out of the covers frequently. But this year I have had such COLD FEET! I have actually been wearing warm, fuzzy socks to bed (which would have driven me completely crazy in the past). Anyway, I wanted to make the card about my fuzzy socks. The colors aren't the same as the real ones, but I used flocking on the socks, which just drew lightly with a pencil then used glue and flocking. I love a day when it's snowing outside to curl up in my big chair with a book and a blanket, so I added those elements as well. I thought it was cute.

I also participated recently in a "Winner Takes All" exchange, where everyone signs up, 2 winners are chosen and everyone has to send those two people a card. I didn't win :( The winners can let everyone know what kinds of themes or techniques they particularly like also. One of the winners had Asian as one of the themes that she likes and this is the card I made to send her. It's a little hard to see, but there is some subtle shimmer on her fabric and on the lantern. I need to make another one for myself. (do you who swap cards - of any kind - make one for yourself? I like to.)

Last, but not least, I am also involved in a "Steampunk" themed swap and this is what I ended up with. I felt like, to really be in the Steampunk spirit it would be cool if the card was a little machine in itself. It should DO something. The collaged piece is shaped like a gear and sandwiched beteen 2 layers with a brad in the center so it can spin - like my mind! The images in her brain are all "Steampunk-y": keys, birds, charts, a watch, gears, etc. I love this eyes stamp! And my new Tim Holtz embossing folder for the bricks at the side. I am planning to do another design for this swap and will probably use the brick in that one also. I'll post it if/when I get it done. I have several other projects to do tomorrow also. Goodnight for now!

Funny Pic

So, the other night i was relaxing watching TV and it was getting near bed-time. My daughter came home from work and I stopped her from coming up the stairs and asked her to bring me one of my sugar free ice cream bars. I had bought some ice cream for everyone and a box of SF bars for my self and had only eaten one, so far (out of 6). She says "Did you hide any?" and I said "No, why?" She says that there was only one left and she ate it last night! So I asked if she would just bring me a little bit of the regular ice cream and she's too tired, so I just said forget it. I figured I'd finish my show and go get it myself.
By the time my show is done, I decided I was too tired and would rather just skip the ice cream and go to bed. So I go into my room and THIS is what I find!.....





I sometimes have a bag of chocolates in the drawer next my bed. The red things all over the bed are my Dove Dark Promises that the DOGS ate! Along with the chocolate all over the bed too. She looks pretty satisfied with herself, doesn't she!? Little chub-monster!

Bird IS the Word!

This house is on my route to work and the very first time I noticed it was just after I had gotten my scallop punch and all I could see was the beautiful pink scallops at the top! I love the color combo, too! It still had a porch when I first noticed it. I think they are slowly trying to rehab it and I just hope they don't change the colors or the personality I feel from this house. Anyway, I was involved in a card swap in my "PaintingWithRadiance" group (which is gone now :( ) and knew exactly what I wanted to do for my card. It was using the theme of birds - I think it was close to a year ago! - and in that group, the goal was always to make it sparkly!

So this was the card I made for that swap :

So now I'm involved in a tag swap on one of my ATC groups and again the theme is birds. I still really like that house and decided I wanted to make a variation of my bird card for the tags and this is what I came up with! I liked it, but just didn't feel like it was quite "right" and couldn't quite pinpoint what the problem was. I had originally wanted to have the feather dangle from the strings at the top, but couldn't decide how to do it in a way that would STAY well. I try to make the things for swaps so that they are not going to come undone easily. I have a friend at work, Linnea, who also has an "artsy" side and I like to show her what I've done, what I've received, etc and decided I would get her opinion. She helped me decide HOW to attach the feather where I wanted it and helped me clarify what I wasn't liking about it. I didn't think the bird was easily visible -especially when the lighting was dimmer and was trying to think of a way to "pop" her out better, but didn't really want to add a background behind her and Linny just simply said "change the color" and my lightbulb suddenly went on! Duh! It doesn't HAVE to be the same color to be a variation. I switched it to the light green and it was SO much better! Then, when I got to playing with it as I made it, I added the nest of eggs inside the house. I always make one to keep for myself and I made one for Linny as a gift for healping me "tweak" it. I hope my swappers will like it because I really do!

FYI- the "siding " was done using one of my TJ techniques!

The title of this tag is "Mama's Pride"