OMG...I drew a face!!

Whilst browsing on the Paper Artsy blog, I discovered that topic 19 is faces.  So immediately I said, "I can't draw a face, so I won't even try. Grump, grump, grump, mutter, mutter..."  However, I have no hesitations about looking at faces other people have drawn, so continuing to scroll down the posts, I discovered that the Lovely and Wonderful Leandra had included a video by Dina Wakley showing how to draw a face.  Thinking, "this is going to be a disaster, *grump grump mutter mutter*"  I pulled out my sadly neglected art journal (so VERY VERY neglected that it does not even need capitals as there are only two and a half pages that have anything on them-the only other page that had anything was ripped out in a fit of *YUCK* and has not been touched since, but I digress) with not very high hopes.  HOWEVER, Dina is a fantastic explainer and demonstrator at face making.  And so you see here a pretty human looking face. *after redrawing the eyes a few times to stop her looking like an extra from an alien movie*  I am well pleased with my first face attempt since about, oh, let's say age 10.  Mayhap I shall endeavor to create another face (or two or three) and finish them and perhaps *shudder* even write something on the page...Thanks Leandra for posting that video link, so I can say that this was inspired by you!  I'm thinking I need to draw some more faces...but Dina says to work on a background that is not too dark or heavy, so I need to make some backgrounds...onward to stencils and ink and paint!  WOO!

Here is the link to the PaperArtsy blog where you can learn all about faces!  

Onlinecardclasses Background Check: Inked Plaid

As promised (or threatened, whichever way you choose to take it...) here is the plaid one.  I used the Brushstrokes background stamp from SU! and two shades of gray inks- Archival Watering Can and Stayz-On Dove Gray.  Not digging the big gap where I failed to line up the stamp, and the lines faded out there a little too much but I figure I will cover that up with a sentiment or something later.  The inks on top are all Distress- Abandoned Coral (which is covering up the SU! Tangelo Twist that I originally put on there), Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistachio (covering the original Twisted Citron-hey covering up the ink worked once, right?), and Mermaid Lagoon.  I'm thinking it would be fun to do some masking and inking right on the stamp combined with some masking and inking on the card stock too.  Might be a tad harder to line up, but wonky plaid is still plaid, right?  :)

Onlinecardclasses Background Check: Retro Resist

Oh my goodness.  Day two project on day two.  WHAAAT?!!!  You know how you find all these new, shiny techniques and all the old ones just kind drift off to the back of your mind and sit there all sad and unloved?  No? Just me then?  Oh, okay.  :) This is the perfect example.  How could I forget this great technique?  It is so much fun and really cool looking too.  I didn't really choose the best background stamp to show off the tech, but I like it, it makes me happy and it is above all else PURPLE.  Sorry, there was just a smidge of "so there" in that comment.  Apologies.  But it is purple.  And awesome.  Heh. Well, SU! Blackberry Bliss to be exact.  :)  This was only my second attempt I know, amazing, right?!?  using a text stamp from Wendy Vecchi and a cover-a-card stamp from Impression Obsession.  And I like it.  Again with the "so there" tone.  Sorry!  Heh.  The first try is interesting...same background text but the top stamp is the logs cover-a-card and instead of the text appearing in the back of the logs, it looks like they are in front. Probably couldn't do it again if I tried.  Well, maybe, I think it is that the logs don't cover enough of the text.  But I like it anyway.  Yay!  A two for two liking! And I may be back a little later with the plaid stamping- I have a stripy background that will either be super cool or super, well, not cool.  Will let you know...here is the logs and text sample.

Thanks for stopping by!  Oh, what do you think about the chicken wire frame thingy I have the samples displayed on?  Good?  Bad?  Too distracting?  Sparkly paper in the background making your eyes water?

OnlineCardClasses- Background Check

Heyla to blogland!  It is day one of the Background Check class at Online card classes and was it a doozy!  I managed to make ONE of the billionty  (okay really 10, but still...) background samples from today.  PLUS I am actually putting it in the gallery!  WOOT!  Go me!  I haven't put anything in the gallery since the first classes I took!  So excited! Hopefully I will keep up with class this time, at least I did one sample, right?  That is better than none which is my usual thing with class.  Watch the videos and make the stuff about a month after class is over.  Sigh.  I blame that work thing.  I would have SO much more energy if I could just skip that work thing and stay home and stamp.  Well, actually, I know me and I would probably just end up watching movies and shows on Netflix (streaming is great...for making me lose track of time and binge watch everything...) or reading, or watching the class videos and making the projects two months later...Heh.  Yeah, let's be realistic here.  :)
This is the VersaMark on inked background.  I used SU! inks and as you can see the stamping turns darker, just like VersaMark on CS.  Pretty, but I think I have to snag me some of the inks that Jennifer used, those were amazing.  Don't know where I will put them, but let's worry about THAT later.   If you want to find out about it, head over and register for the class- it is TOTALLY worth it (they didn't pay me to say that or anything, I just really love these classes)!  Just don't ask me how many times I took the picture of the background.  LOTS.  And it is still a little off.  But it is less blurry.  Really.  Look, just trust me on this one, okay?    Perhaps I need to take a using-the-stupid-camera class...  thanks for stopping by, happy stamping!  :)

Paper Artsy theme #7 Niches

Look at me actually playing along with Paper Artsy's theme this time instead of just stalking!  Woo!  I have been wanting to do a canvas shadowbox for some time, just never got the lightning bolt of inspiration (yes, that is a real thing...trust me...).  AND I have had this idea about using the round containers from retired SU! buttons as shadowboxes so this theme of niches was the just the lightning bolt (see, I told you it was a real thing) I needed to go off and be creative.  As an added bonus, I was able to use the one non-Christmassy Paper Artsy set that I own!  Oh- don't worry, I have a few more sets on the way (and I can't WAIT to get my hands on them!!!)  I even remembered to take a few along-the-way-photos!  So here we go! 

 Nope, didn't take a pic of the stamped insert in progress...oh well.  First up, painted the inside of the frame with Seedless Preserves Distress Paint just because I could.  Then stamped and colored the insert piece.  Stamped with black Archival and colored with Dyan Reavely's sprays in water brushes.  And yes, there were masks stamped and cut out even for the sprangly flowers!!  Glued the insert into place with matte Multi-Medium.  Then Glue-n-Seal to adhere the paper pieces onto the frame.  Next up we have Ranger's Texture Paste (which really looks like frosting as you are applying it...don't use it when you are hungry...heh. heh. heh.) applied in varying thickness and stamped with the leaves and the egg looking thingys from Darcy's set 14. Let it dry and then washed a mix of Gathered Twigs Distress Paint and Perfect Pearl water over it.  The Pearlyness didn't really show, so once dry

out came my only pot of Treasure Gold- White Fire.  I am now officially addicted to this stuff.  And yes, two more pots are on the way.  :)  The round containers started out plain clear plastic, but I got a little carried away with the regular old craft paint.  I have a dabber top on this particular bottle and it left the fine bubbly texture- especially since I have NO patience and heat gunned it.  Yep.  Just a little, didn't 
want to melt the plastic or anything..  It does tend to flake off, but it's not going to be handled so it is fine.  Plus, it adds some more cool texture.  I then add a dash of Potting Soil Archival and more White Fire.  (soooo addicted...)

Cut some pretty paper for the inside and proceeded to try not to cover it up with the embellies.  All pulled from my stash, I KNEW hoarding was okay...  

 We've got some Tim Holtz gears and a lightbulb.

Not sure if that is a TH bottle or a random one I picked up somewhere.  It's filled with some micro bead shinys.  the butterfly is a woodcut covered in embossing powder with wire for the body and antenna.


Used some Wendy Vecchi embossing powder on my letters and of course got speckles on the wood block part on one.  Well, we can't have speckles on only one, but do you know how hard it is to make random speckles of embossing powder on purpose?!?  Solution?  More Treasure Gold!!  Then of course I got some on the letters- and sadly didn't like that so back to the embossing powder!  By now there are at least 5 coats of that stuff on those letters...and the green one actually started out red!

Added some paint to a word band, tied it on with ribbon, stuck the cups in place and thought, "that corner needs something, but what?"  Look through the stash, find a thin chipboard gear butterfly (that I had forgotten was in there!!) spray it with Perfect Pearl water and cover with Distress Paints.  Dry with heat tool (NO patience, remember?) and get sad because it's not shiny anymore.  :(  Wink of Stella!!  Yay!  Still not shiny enough...Glossy Accents!!

YES!!  But that was a LOT of squeezing.  My hands hurt.  But look at that shine!  Totally worth it!  Painted the outside edges with Seedless Preserves.  Hope you enjoyed looking at my creation as much as I enjoyed making it!  Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think!  :)

I'm on Paper Artsy! Woot!

I have been stalking the Paper Artsy blog for quite some time now and finally got the courage (heh- canvas title, see what I did there?) to put my name in the hat for the #3UP.  Then was excited and a little worried and excited that my name got picked!  I decided to take the theme of Deconstruction, because I really, really like breaking stuff, so much so that it would be my dream job to break stuff all day.  :)

Sadly, I don't have any of the Paper Artsy Fresco paints (birthday is a-comin' so that won't be a problem for too much longer...) so I did the best color matching as possible.  I used a combination of Distress Ink sprays and paints, Stampin' UP! inks and regular old craft acrylic paints.  Did I write down the colors I used?  Of course not.  Audible sigh.  I also was having such fun destroying things that I failed to take any step by step photos.  Another audible sigh.  Still, I had a BLAST with this.

First step was to paint the base layer on the canvas.  I do remember that I inked it which turned out to not be such a good idea...heat gun to the rescue...sorta...well, dry enough to work with at any rate.  I then proceeded to rip, cut, tear and beat the canvas with a hammer.  Seriously.  Well, Tim's texture hammer, but it still smashed the heck outta that canvas!  My favorite part got covered with the box that I stuck in the big hole...shoulda put that a little lower, cause I had totally bashed the frame and it looked awesome!!  You'll just have to trust me on this one.  Scraping the point of my Cricut tweezers across the canvas was way fun too.

 The butterflies used to be a soft drink can and the bird was some random packaging.  I think the black netting used to hold Boomwhacker tuned percussion tubes (I'm a music teacher by day) and the girl is some random fabric.  I am now officially hooked on deconstruction- after I was done I kept thinking, "Now what ELSE do I have that I can destroy?!?"- it's a little frightening.  But only a little.  OH!  I own two Paper Artsy stamp sets (well, now three, but the other one hadn't arrived before the deadline...one day after, but not before.  Isn't that always the way?) and they were both Christmasy.  So I was very pleased (would that be "chuffed" across the pond?) to be able to use them on this very non-Christmasy canvas!!  Go me!!  :)  Thanks to the great folks at Paper Artsy for letting me play along, and if you stuck around through all that inane prattle, here are some close ups to reward you!  :)

 Thanks for stopping by!  Let me know what you think!  :)


Edited to add:  Obviously I don't know how to schedule a post...so this is DAYS late (I was out of town...) oh well.  Maybe someone will find it...

So I've been away...

a looooong time.  But I am back to show you some new storage and it rocks! 

I love the storage options available from Stamp-n-Storage!  And before you ask, no, I don't work for them, but I wish I did!  I have, starting on the bottom left, the old style lock down punch holder, the Slim ink pad holder (72) and the Standard holder (60).  On top of that from the left is the new lock down punch holder (and it is amazing!  The SU! tag topper punches or large border punches (like the stars and hearts) will fit in the center row and the other punches will fit anywhere!  In the old holder you could only put the two smaller sizes in the top and bottom rows.), then there is the Petite ink holder (48) and in it are the MINI DISTRESS PADS!!!  Woot!!  Now they aren't in a box!  To make them fit, I purchased the spacers that are supposed to go in the Blendabilities holder for washi tape.  But I didn't like them there.  So I moved them and I do like this!  YAY!  The last two items are the Blendabilities holder (but since that product line is discontinued- sad face- it now has aquapainters filled with Dyan's sprays) and the half shelf on top of the punches.  I also have a three shelf stamp shelf and another half shelf on the other side of the room.  But these were the most exciting.  Well, to me anyway!  :)  Windows?  Who needs windows?!?  I gots me a wall of punches and ink to look at!  yay!  Here is a closer-up of the mini distress pads...

Room for expansion!  (or to store the new colors in big pads until they come out with the minis...heh.)  I am pretty sure that the tins on the top will be replaced with another 48 distress pad holder, but hubby was already frowning about the two orders I placed, so give it another month...  :)  And Stamp-n-storage has free shipping too!  Yay and woot!  Plus a lot of other storage options, so if you need storage go check them out- reasonably priced and very high quality.  Hope that helps anyone in need of storage options!  :)  I really need to see if I can work for them, right?  heh.  :)  Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think!