Here I am!

Long time no post!! I am still here. I haven't been creating too much lately, sad but true.

I did do some tile coasters...so short post I know but just wanted to pop on and say Hi!

The first tile I painted, not stamped because I am on the quest for a bunch of grapes stamp. I would like to do many of these tiles but would like them to all be the same, alas the need for a stamp. This next set is all stamped. The images I used black stazon and then colored them in with acrylic paints. then I just spray sealed them to make the water proof.
I have been doing these for years and I still love to do them!
I hope you all are well!
I will see you on your blogs!
Have a great weekend!

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge ~ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Here is my entry for the CSCC. This set of 4 is going on a small wall in my bathroom. Like I had said before in a previous post that my friend Sandy had bought me a whole bunch of Asian stamps and a pack of yummy paper to play with. I have been wanting to change around some pictures around my house and put my own "stuff" up. This week challenge was not only a great movie but it inspired me to get going on these:

The first one is my favorite! I like the clean look of this one.

My DH thought it was funny that I used a dragon and dragonflies here.

I really like this one too, then again I am partial to butterflies.

I hope everyone had a great day, ours stared out sunny, but by the time we got to the forest preserve it was rather grey...lots of ice!
The sign at the door of Home Depot said 39 more days till spring! Who's counting?

Soul Journal - Inch Squares

The assignment was to go through your magazines and tear out images from a list that SW had prepared. {{To see the list and more detail directions visit Sarah Whitmires Blog}} .

There were 24 items listed and first you find them, and then on the next days prompt you cut sections of your finds into 1 inch squares.

(sorry for the blurry picture, it was the only one I had taken pre-paint)

Tricky girl had a few letters thrown in with the pictures request and I didn't even know what it said until I laid them out, I wasn't paying attention to that part. I was just letting things kind of fall into place. It ends up that you have a bit of a story board, personal as it may be, a story board none the less.
After it was dry, we were to paint around and make a background. I used a few colors and also rubbed off with a little H2O where I wanted it a little lighter in spots. The pictures were cover with medium gel so they were protected and it was easy to clean them up if too much paint got on it.

The final part of this prompt was to, select 8 pictures to describe, circle one, draw a messy square around 4 & a dotted line around 2.

It was interesting to me to see which picture I picked for each prompt.

I am really enjoying this!

Something else I enjoy very much is Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge.

This weeks movie is:

I didn't know what the movie of the week was until this morning. The girls give out sneak peeks during the week, but my guess was way off...I think I guessed Legend, does anyone remember this movie, Tom Cruise was in it before he turned weirdo. So anyway, the card I made yesturday was very apropriate for this weeks challenge but I am still working on something else. the only rules this week is that it must have a splash of red!

I hope you play along. Click here for my details.

A thank you and get well...

This first card is for a special person that bought me this stamp. I just love all things Asian and she knows it! I black embossed the image, then colored it in with markers and also used a little sponging and daubing in the background. Thank you again Sandy for all the lovely gifts!

This next card is for my dear friend Kris who had surgery weeks ago and is having a slow recovery! I try to send her cards once a week, even if they are simple style, I want her to know we are all thinking about her and missing her! I usually make one for our clients to sign as well. Kris is our rockstar shampoo assistant, and we miss her!!!

I don't know who the DP is made by, but it just seemed very cheerful!

We had great weather today I was so thankful, it is nice to go out and get some fresh air, without freezing. My DH and I went and seen "He is just not that into you". It had a slow start but it was cute once it got going. Lats week we saw "The Wrestler" (we have to trade picks each time), it was actually a good movie, sad but good, Kudos to Mickey for getting his shit together and returning to the big screen. The film was a bit independent film-esk and no special effect, just a good story.

~PEACE~

Shamless Sisterly Plug...

Here is one of my Sisters new You Tube Videos. I usually just post a link to YouTube, but some of you guys who check things out at work seem to be blocked from YouTube, so you can just check one of them out here. Plus I think this video is one of my favs so far.

Click HERE to visit her YouTube page, you can subscribe and check her other videos out.

Or to see her other 2 new videos are Somewhere Over the Rainbow (for my Mom, and suitable for last weeks Cinema Saturday Challenge as well) & Sally The Camel, (don't ask me where that came from but it is funny, I love how silly my sis is!).

And on with the show...

Thanks for watching, did I mention my lil' sis is GETTING MARRIED!!!!

She just got engaged!!!!

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge ~ The Wizard Of Oz

How fun, what a great movie for Sankari & Brooke to pick this week for their CSCC. I don't know anyone that hasn't seen The Wizard of Oz! There are so many things in the movie that you could use for inspiration. The challenge "rules" for this week were, obviously to use the movie for inspiration and to include a metallic element on your piece. FUN & SHINY!!! There are many cutesy fun parts about the movie, and then there are many dark and spooky parts of the movie. I couldn't stop thinking about those darn creepy flying monkeys, I especially was creeped out by them as a kid!!!!

So that is where I went on my creation, however in a twisted sort of way.

I used a shiny skull sticker for the head of the monkey and a winged heart for the rest when I realized I only had cute monkey stamps, no creeepy monkey bodies haha. I took a piece of thick aluminum foil and ran it through my cuttle bug embossing folder. Then I brushed on a little Gesso to the raised parts so that I could get some

RAINBOW themed paint colors on the branches and flowers.

I made the flowers red even though they are not POPPIES. Then my own little story came together in my head, (yeah that happens sometimes(ok a lot)) and it was almost as if this little flying faux monkey wanted to steal the TIN MANS HEART for his own...alas I constructed the heart with some stickers and bling. The chain was from a wine bottle cover that I got as a gift that I will find a thousand things to use those little treasures on. I also added the blingy eyes to the skull, can't have empty eye sockets. This was hard to get a good photo of it because it is very metallic! The skull face is actually silver, not black but it is hard to get it to show up right in the photo. IRL it actually has a lot of color!

It also looks much different with the flash!

My Mom and Uncle Dan love this movie, it is their favorite, but I know what my Mom will say, "couldn't you have done something pretty, without skulls?" LOL, the next one will be!

Have a great day!

Winter Flower

What a pleasant way to start my day...I woke up to this pretty flower that had bloomed in my living room. For the winter we bring our Hibiscus plant in the house. We got it the first year we were together. Every winter it looks as if it is going to die, but it doesn't! I have had blooms in early December, but never in late January! The rest of the bush looks terrible, so it was nice to have a bright flower on it this morning, LOL.

The sun was shinning but it was only about 5 degrees out today!

Soul Journal - Creative Armor

Today's SJ is making a page with a suit of armor on it. This was definitely something that I have never worked with before. Again I am following the start of this journal from Caspiana Blog. I am having a lot of fun playing with some stuff that I haven't done before. Who doesn't love to cut and paste.

The idea is to find what you need to protect your creative spirit or soul. This is what I came up with:
These are the clip art pictures that I started with. you can find these and more ~HERE~
I printed them out and went to town!
Below is a family crest that I altered to suit my project.
I also used a combination of rub-ons, stamps, markers, colored pencils, glue, matte gel, gesso, inks, sponges....I guess that is about it.
I wrote out what I was feeling that I need to protect and nurture my creative self, it reads as follows:
COURAGE to try new things.
Follow my HEART to be true to myself.
Shelter and inspiration from TREES and nature.
FREEDOM to color outside the lines and to do what I want to do.
Be KIND to myself and others even when it is hard
and I don't want to.
Everything doesn't have to be just so love imperfections.
Find beauty in small things in nature
and all around us,
just look.
DREAM bigger.
CREATE more.
IMAGINE it and BECOME.
Enjoy inner PEACE.

All the words capitalized were the ones I put on my "family crest"
It is fun to get out of my comfort zone.

Soul Journal - This Book Belongs To...

OK! So to start my Journal I needed a book that had pages that could take a little abuse. So I had a large pad of Watercolor paper laying around. It is a bit larger then I thought I would like, but after I started working on it I really liked all the space.

The next thing was to rip out some pages that had words on it and glue them on to the first three pages, randomly. I have to admit that was rather liberating and a little to fun to tear the pages out. I used and old Thesaurus.

After that set a bit, you circle words that pop out to you. Then you write for 5 minutes starting with the phrase "today I feel..." every time you get stuck repeat it. I filled the pages more quickly then I thought I would, getting much "deeper" on the second and third pages. So this is the start: I then took a little trip to the craft store (thanks to my wonderful clients who give me gift cards for X-Mas, do they know me or what?) I bought some Gesso to prime the pages. You brush it on lightly so that you can still make out the words.
Allow it to dry or blast it with your heat gun, the write out your name again and again, till it fills the whole page! Oh I almost forgot, First you write, stamp or sticker "this book belongs to" on the top. At this point you are claiming your journal. Then you can doodle it up any way you please. I had so much fun with this part already. I had remembered sitting in classes doing this sort of thing all over my notebooks, although it was more like "I Love So-and-So" then the next week "So-and-So" turned into a blobby doodle with the drama of a high school break up, LOL!

I added a bunch of rub-ons too!
So there you have it the cover is done, now on to the meat!
Excuse the mess on the table, I made an executive decision to NOT clean my room because if I started in on that when not it the mood I would never do anything creative. Cleaning is for those rare moments when you feel like getting "organized" today was not one of those moments!
Maybe next week!

A give away and a new start!

I have been admiring for some time the Soul Journal works of my SBS5 good friend Lay for some time now. I am so excited to say that last night I have just started mine! I don't have much to post yet but the start of it has been pretty cool already! I will post more by this weekend.

If you are interested in starting this little Journaling Journey, visit Caspiana to start (they started this in July '08).

Also you should check out Lay's blog as well (I am her biggest fan!)

In the meantime Kathryn is giving away this intriguing book for all the details visit her on the Soul Journaling blog. I will keep my fingers crossed that I win, or else this will be on my list.

I love a good creative book recommendation!

Leave me a comment if you decide to start this too, and I hope you do!

Have a great day!

~PEACE~

Cards For Kids...

My dear friend and fellow SBS5 gal Pat is doing some wonderful things for a local Children's Hospital (Michigan), including making cards for the kids and families that are there. She has pledged 1,000 cards! Visit her blog for all the details, Pat, The Rubber Maid.

So here are some of my cards that I am sending off to her: I love Queen Kats "Little Monster" I bust this little guy out for lots of occasions. I tried to make girl and boy cards.

How 'bout those feathers?

Hugs & KisssssSSSsses! Heehee!

My first time inking up these little fairies that I got from Archivers.

~PEACE~

Photo Post

I have not been in my craft room for over 2 weeks! {{gasp}} I thought it was a lack of mojo, but I think it is more the need for a bucket and shovel to bail out ribbon, wrapping and holiday stamps! I will resume soon... I have lots of things that I want to do, one including Soul Journalling, I thought that might be a good start to a new year.

In the meantime I am so happy because I got a new camera for X-Mas (Canon PowerShot SX10). So despite the bitter cold I went for a little hike with DH along the partially frozen Fox River. Here are some of my first experimentation photos. Enjoy and I will be rounding all your blogs to do some major catch up on whats going down in BlogVille!
Who says you can't find flowers in the winter...even though they are frozen!

I just loved finding these little berries. I couldn't believe they were still hanging on through our bad weather!

I actually hugged this tree and wondered if anyone else had ever hugged this particular tree in all it's long life. Try hugging a tree sometime...literally.

Bright blue sky, it is a fooler, it was FREEZZZZING cold out!

Happy Winter!

Peace everyone!