Victoria Day!!

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria, wherever you may be! Today I made sure I didn't have to go anywhere so that I could work on my art all day. And so far that is what I have done! I recently joined a new Yahoo group called Art For the Creative Mind, and they have lots of great swaps - just what I need to keep the juices flowing! I made an Alice in Wonderland postcard for that group, and still need to make 2 Asian ATCs, an art doll, and a bird card. For my ABCanada group I made a Nature ATC, because we have another ATC swap where we make the ATC we receive into an Altered Book Page! And for my Stampscapes group, we are doing "Animalscapes" this month, so I did mine today. Over at the Altered Books yahoo group, we are celebrating a 7th Anniversary with Arches, so I have to make 17 arches. I started designing it today.

So here they are!

 My Alice-In-Wonderland postcard was inpired by a magazine article in Stamper's Sampler, June/July 2009. The article is called "Deconstructed Stamping" by Pam Carriker. I loved the zig-zag around the edge and thought it would be perfect for this card. It was fun poring through my stamps and finding things that would work!

This is my Animalscapes card to mail off to my partner. I found the eagle (Old Island) when I was re-organizing all my um's - so many I had totally forgotten I had! Since I've been watching this eagle and her baby eaglet, it inspired me to make this card.

here is my nature ATC for my ABCanada group:

I love my new word stamps from Michael's - only $1.50!

Update on Beatles Swap!

I received my wonderful Beatles ATCs!

The first one is "She's a Woman" by Martina Fuchs in Germany, the second by Marnie Blum - "rain", and the third by Ingeborg in Germany -"Michelle my belle". My plans are to create pages around these beautiful ATCs in My Beatles Altered Book. A summer project!

And lastly, a journal page. I have been neglecting my journal lately. I think its just because I'm tired and I don't have a lot of energy at the end of the day, especially on those days that I go to the gym after work. I get home late, have to make supper, and by the time I've eaten and washed dishes, I'm ready to zonk out in front of the telly for awhile. I know - I can hear those violins too! Usually asleep by ten. Also I've been a tad depressed lately, and that may be part of it. I'm trying to use more stamps in my journalling lately (why have 1000s of stamps just to cut photos out of magazines??) Also used my new TH die cut, which I had a helluva time getting through my Spellbinder, but it's been easier lately. I may use this die cut for my Aches. Or maybe not. i think these are all TH stamps.

Well that's it for now. If I have forgotten anything I will add it later on. Have a wonderful holiday to those of you who get the day off!

New Postcards

I had fun with my stamp carving, but was not happy with the postcards, so I have come up with something I like better. The colours are Sepia and Ultramarine. I realized that sepia was the colour of old photos, not "brown". So I went to my Altered Pages cache and found some sepia images I really liked!





Not sure what I'm going to do with the old postcards yet. I'll save them, and someday they will be "Just the thing I needed!" for a future project!

Stamp Carving!

Decided I would try my hand at stamp carving this week, as part of my Printmaking experience. I transferred a photo I had taken in the summer to a sheet of soft carving rubber and carved away! This is what I got.

This is the photo. . .

carved into this. . .

and stamped onto my postcards for September for my Color Postcards Group.
The colors this month are Ultramarine and Sepia - or loosely translated into brown and dark blue, a rather somber color group!

after a few stampings the tail started to break off - must remember that for future carving. I wonder if it can be glued together? I will try!

I'm not sure that the rest of the postcards will use the same stamp. I need to find a way to brighten up these colors! Maybe I'll carve another one. . .

Finally! A day to breathe!

Weekends are so much more appreciated when you have to work all week! I was able to scan all my new cards and Aqua postcards this morning, so now i can share them with you. My friend Therese came to visit in August and she was a great help in getting me back into card making. I used to make cards all the time, but I've been doing so many other things recently, it's like I have forgotten how! Therese brought her Cuttlebug and embossing Folders for me to play with - I've never done these before, it was fun! I had recently read online that a pasta machine, set at #2, could be used with the Embossing Folders, so of course, we had to try it. Worked like a charm! So I now have a bunch od cards using the embossed backgrounds that we made.

For this one I rubbed ink on the embossing folder

This one uses an ATC I made in July

You can't see the background in this one, but it's there!

This was my first one

This one I rubbed Distress ink on the raised portions after I ran it through

Another one using an ATC, great use for those ATCs that are hanging around!

And now for my Color Postcard group - I am very late with these, I should have done them at the beginning of August! The theme is Aqua, and I had to get them done quickly, so everyone is getting the same card this time. The seahorse stamp is the only stamp I have ever designed myself, and got made into rubber. It is sold at my local stamp store, Marchant's.

This postcard is for my DD, i used one of my blue Moo cards for this one. I like the bling, and hopefully she will too, though she isn't a real bling kind of gal! I also used the raised dots on this one, although you can't really see them, on the edges of the Indian patterns.


I have also made an Asian Love Book for Altered Pages, and it is sold as a kit. You can see it here.
That's all for now, hopefully I will get some time in my art room this weekend!

July's Challenge

Finally, it's July, and there is no school to go to everyday, and I won't be exhausted at 8pm every night! Should be a time for rejoicing and finally getting onto my Art Room! But, alas, as happens EVERY year, it is a time of sadness (somethings missing), depression ("don't know what to do" she whines), and a creative block, as I sit at my chair in my art room,look around, and say "maybe I should sell all this stuff". BUT - it doesn't usually last for long. There was a challenge on my Altered Books Yahoo group to do some art, anything, everyday in July. So I am up for that challenge, and I'm declaring it today, July 1, (Happy Canada Day BTW!!), that I will do some art everyday in July and (try to) post everyday in July to show what I've done. I actually have made a list of things I want to do everyday this summer:

1-ART
2-JOURNAL
3-READ
4-PLAY PIANO
5-FLYLADY
6-MAKE MATERIALS FOR MY CLASSROOM

With Art at the top, it will be the first thing I do everyday, even if nothing else gets done!

So, to start, here is another (yes, this is REALLY my last one) violet and lime postcard:

It's hard to tell with the scan, but all the little dots are raised silver dots. I love this stuff!

I haven't posted any journal pages for awhile, so here are my last several pages:

The white piece on the right is a piece that Wanda sent , embossed using the same stencil she used for the ATC on the left. I know you can't see it, but it's there!

Not one of my favourite pages!

I love the colours on this page

This page was fun, I took a face from a magazine page and painted over it! The pink thing hanging down is Ron's hospital band.

Using my new Paper Artsy stamps! Also, using the colors from my new Color Postcards group -Salmon and Turquoise

again, using June's colors this time from my Colors Postcard Group -Violet and Lime. The dots are gold raised dots. like on my postcards.

So, there is my June 1st post. Don't expect this much everyday!! I will try to also post my Journal Pages this month as I finish each one.

Last one

This last postcard is for my dd. I sent it as a surprise, and it got lost in her deep dark mailbox. I had to reveal the surprise so she would go and look for it in her mailbox!

More Lime and Violet

Here are a few more Violet and Lime postcards for my color postcards group!

Violet and Lime Green

Here we are, I've begun making my violet and lime green cards. Now my violet seems a bit dark, is violet lighter than this? Don't know. Maybe I'll try a few with a lighter, lavender color.

The transparency is from Altered Pages

I am using my coasters that I bought last spring for my postcard base. The coasters are all different sizes and shapes, which gives me a lot of creative ideas to work with! The coasters are perfect for traveling "naked" through the mail!

Last Two. . .

postcards that is, in Turquoise and Salmon.




This last one is, I admit, a bit busy. . .!

Next month's colours: Violet and Lime Green -Yuk!! We'll have to see how that goes!

More postcards

Three more postcards for my Colour Postcard Group, in Salmon and Turquoise. I'm beginning to like this combination! All clip art images from Altered Pages.

Some May Challenges

Since my DH's knee surgery and subsequent recovery, I haven't had much time to do much! But I did have these two challenges to do, and now that DH is a little less reliant on me, perhaps I can get more done~

The newest Yahoo group that I have joined is called Colour Postcards. It's a really neat group where we choose a colour combo each month, and make postcards for the people on our list, like a Mingle. May's combo is Turquoise and Salmon. So here is my first colour postcard for the group:


(image by altered pages)

I have 7 more to do...

The next piece is for my Byhand Artists group, for what is lovingly called a "Yalpha Mingle". We choose a letter each month (our own choice) and make a 4X4 page for it. This month I chose "P", because I am reminded of the upcoming Proms for the high school students. I didn't go to mine, my DD went to hers, it always seemed so feminine and wonderful, I wish I could go back in time and go to my Prom!

front:


back:

This weekend is a long weekend in Canada, called Victoria Day. It's not as warm as I would like it, but it's nice to have a day off from work. Only one month left before I can do art all summer!