You Have to Start Somewhere

This past summer I got a great deal on a set of 36 Derwent Watercolour Pencils at a garage sale. I don't usually go to garage sales, but for some reason I looked at the classified ads in the newspaper that day and one ad caught my eye. The first two items listed were rubber stamps and scrapbook supplies, and the sale was only three blocks away. So I decided to go and I was able to pick up quite a few items at rock bottom prices, including the Derwent pencils.

I already own Prismacolor Premier pencils that I use in my art pieces, but I have not done any watercoloring until now. It was a lot of fun to experiment and the Derwent colors are beautiful. They are much more vibrant than I expected.

I started with a small and simple image: leaves with small buds attached. I don't know what type of tree or bush it is, so I just chose colors that I liked. I tried a Koi self-moistening water brush at first, but I switched to a small Loew Cornell paint brush and decided I liked it better.

I'm sure a larger image will allow me to play with the colors even more, but I had to start somewhere!

We're having a glorious fall day here. I hope you are, too. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Leaf image (Stampin' Up!); Happiness stamp (Stampin' Up!); Strathmore watercolor paper; Derwent Watercolor Pencils; Loew Cornell paint brush; Archival jet black ink; Adirondack espresso dye ink; Bazzill brown and tan cardstocks; green flourish paper by Anna Griffin; text paper by K & Company; oval and scalloped oval punches; brushed corduroy distress ink; old ribbon; antique gold eyelets.

Musical Gift Bag

It seems I will have the opportunity to give Marylee her Home mantel decoration in person (rather than having to mail it), so I decided to make a coordinating gift bag to hold it.

I used the same black and red cardstock that I used to make the accordion-fold Home Means Harmony project described here. My background paper is old sheet music from the 1910s that I masked with some Tim Holtz masks before stippling with distress inks.

Turning a plain paper sack into a one-of-a-kind piece of art is fairly easy and a lot of fun. It makes gift giving that much more meaningful.

Supplies:
Small white paper bag; black and red cardstock by Bazzill; old sheet music; Tim Holtz masks (Timeworks set); Musical Manuscript stamp by Stampin' Up!; naturals ivory cardstock by Stampin' Up!; Adirondack pitch black ink; clear embossing powder; distress inks: fired brick, walnut stain, and soot black; Karen Foster scrapbooker's floss; old black button; corner rounder punch; Fiskars border punch; black brad.

Thanks for visiting today!

Home Means Harmony

I made this accordion-fold mantel decoration for my friend Marylee, who recently purchased her first home. She likes black and red and already has some Asian-themed items, so I knew exactly what I was going to use on this project.


The dimensions of this project are 4.75 x 18 inches. I made my own background paper by stamping and masking some old dictionary pages and stippling them with fired brick distress ink. The Chinese characters on the end panels stand for harmony and tranquility (and you can bet I verified that with my Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese dictionary before I even bought these stamps!).

Here's a close up shot of one of the pages where you can see the masking and stamping I added to my plain dictionary pages. Although I like using the beautiful decorative papers available to paper crafters now, I feel like a true artiste when I use my brush and ink to create my own designs.

Supplies:
Black and red Bazzill cardstock; old dictionary pages; fired brick and brushed corduroy distress inks; Adirondack pitch black dye ink; embossing powder and heat gun; black Marvy pen; alphabet stamps by Inkadinkado; Kanji stamps by Stampin' Up!; small daisy stamp by Inkadinkado; Tim Holtz small floret masks; small black brads; paper flowers by Prisma; mini black brads; oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities; Cuttlebug.

Happy Monday and have a great week! Thanks for visiting.

Be Inspired

It's no surprise to my friends that I like images with an international or travel theme, especially if those images have a vintage feel to them. I have a romantic vision of the early days of travel, when trains with sleeping cars and ocean liners with state rooms were the modes of transportation (for the wealthy, at least). I know that in reality, travel back in those days was not always comfortable due to the duration of the trips and the lack of air conditioning and other modern amenities, but somehow I imagine it was more leisurely.

I was feeling adventurous and decided to work with some colors that I don't use very often. For some reason I am not a big fan of the color blue anymore, and the mustard seed distress ink I used to tint the central image is pretty bright (it's even brighter in person, almost more of a lemon yellow). But I like how it pops out against the darker, distressed background colors of this card.

And finally I was brave enough to cut into the transparencies I purchased from ARTChix Studio a couple of months ago! The woman's face gives an instant focal point to the entire card. It's hard to tell in this photo, but she has a red flower in her hair that provides an additional hint of color.

I'm sending this 5.5 inch square card to a colleague who has never seen any of my artwork. I know she will like the international theme.

Thanks for popping in today!

Supplies:
French Market stamps by Tim Holtz; French Script stamp by Stampin' Up!, blue and green cardstock by Stampin' Up!; white glossy paper by Stampin' Up!; recycled corrugated cardboard; distress inks: mustard seed, broken china, frayed burlap, brushed corduroy, walnut stain, black soot; embossing powder; black snaps altered with Adirondack copper alcohol ink mixative; copper eyelets and copper "inspire" plate; jute twine; Cuttlebug fancy corners.

A Boy and His Dog

Now that I know my brother has received his birthday card, I can share it with you here. I didn't want to blog about it beforehand and spoil the surprise for him. This particular brother likes vintage and historic things as much as I do, and he has a lot of artistic ability himself, so I always enjoy making cards and other items for him.

The main image by Stampers Anonymous is one of my favorites. What is more classic than the relationship between a boy and his dog? And it reminds me of some of the old pictures of my dad and his family. Even though they were poor, they always seemed to have plenty of dogs, cats, chickens, and rabbits on hand. Of course, some of those chickens and rabbits may have ended up on the dinner table at some point!

Here's a picture of my dad as a boy with two rabbits. I love the old wash tub in the background that looks like it's filled with flowers. I'm guessing this picture was taken in the mid-1940s so maybe their economic situation had improved some by then.

Card Supplies:
Stampers Anonymous stamp; glossy paper; Versamark ink; distress inks: dried marigold, fired brick, frayed burlap, walnut stain; black card base by Bazzill; decorative paper by Daisy D; black snaps, black brads (on the number 5); Fiskars border punch.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sassy Pocket Card

I enjoy using a pocket card format because it allows me to combine a variety of stamped images or patterned papers to great effect. In this case, I used Graphic 45 papers to decorate not only the card base but also the tag that I tucked inside.

I sent this card to a person I've never met. She knows nothing about me (other than we both attended the same high school) so I think she will be surprised when she sees this card. She's in charge of collecting the money for an upcoming reunion I'm attending, and I sent my check in this card. I know that organizing an event like that is often a thankless job, so I wanted to make the task a little more pleasant for her by sending a special card. I can't wait to hear what she says about it!

Supplies:
Graphic 45 decorative papers; Bazzill black cardstock; Stampington image "The Glance;" Tim Holtz Eiffel Tower image; black Stazon ink; fired brick distress ink; walnut stain distress ink; Prima paper flower; black brad; Nestabilities oval die cuts; jute twine.

Thank you for taking time to visit my site! Have a great Labor Day weekend!