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!