Mix-Ability - Speed Bumps

Janelle's challenge this week is to "create texture on your focal point. Add micro beads, chunky glitter, sand, or something dimensional,  mixed in with a liquid adhesive. Disguise it with color over the top or mixed in with the adhesive." 

I find that there are times that I just need to express something from my heart without documenting the steps and techniques... I do enjoy that, and I think that the ability to break down techniques and teach them is an art in itself. Sometimes, though, I give myself permission to just let the process flow, to work out a heart lesson or emotion that can't be expressed other than in color and texture. This was one of those projects for me! 

My 'one little word' this year is "present" - having a quiet heart that is present in each task and each moment... staying in the present, instead of worrying about the future. Especially with my new position at Splitcoast vying for mental space along with my other responsibilities here, teaching and family time, I want to be able to focus in each moment on the task, conversation, or issue at hand - to really bring my heart to every moment. "Bring your heart to every day" is a line from a favorite song by Jason Gray that embodies those sentiments for me. I've been wanting to put those words on a canvas for some time, and this week's challenge helped a few ideas meld for me to make that happen.

Here's a closer look at the heart and the dimension of the 'stuff' there, before and after. I just grabbed beads and pearls and whatever there was on my desk, glued it in place with PVA glue, filled in with sand around it, and then dripped in a clear varnish to hold it together.  When that was all dry, I used acrylic paint to cover it up, then painted the hands.

The stamp of the hands held in a heart shape is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co (if you look in their online pdf catalog it's on page 51).

 

 

 There are a lot of layers of colors here, some brushed, some stamped, some watered down and dribbled around - the raised areas are done with acrylic caulking scraped through a stencil.
 

Hope you'll join us for the challenge this week! I'm also adding this as a contest entry over at Creative Jump Start!
 

Gridlines

Kyra has an interesting challenge for us over in the Mix-Ability forum at Splitcoaststampers - we're supposed to add gridlines to a line art image or to a die cut. She's got some photo examples and stepped-out instructions if you'd like to try this yourself! Can't say I'd do this again... but there's a reason we call these 'challenges'!! Right? Here's my card:

The image I used is one of the exclusive digital stamps I drew for my pencil coloring class, Pencil Basics. I drew in a random grid on each petal, at different angles depending on the direction of the petal's center, then filled in some of the rectangles with a Touch Twin Marker. I colored in the background with the same marker (CG6), and then colored the flowers with Prismacolor Pencils and Montana Acrylic Markers.

For the background, I used a variety of stamps from Impression Obsession. The sentiments is one of my favorites from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co.!

We'd love to have you join us this week!

Crazy week - we finished up health class last Friday, and I was hoping for a restful week "just homeschooling"... but ended up having some students with family emergencies, a toddler on campus with symptoms of pneumonia, and no house help! So much for resting, and "just homeschooling"! So thankful for the weekend, and the 'good' exhausted feeling that comes from serving others. Have a great day! xo

Iris Thanks

Earlier this year I won some stamps from Crafter's Companion, and they've finally arrived at my house... I am a big fan of Sheena Douglass' stamp lines, and she had just added some new floral sets when I was shopping. This iris image is from her A Little Bit Floral line, and it is huge and full of detail.

I painted the image with Shinhan Premium Watercolors (Permanent Magenta, Permanent Violet, Ivory Black, Greenish Yellow, Green Deep) on a 3-inch Art Square from Inchie Arts, and added some texture by stippling paint through an area masked with drywall tape.

The sentiment I used is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co.

Click here for more Inchie Arts products!

Designed To Color sketch challenge

There's a new challenge posted over at the Designed to Color blog! If you love to color, I hope you'll check it out and play along! This is my last challenge post with Designed to Color - it has been a fun six months getting to know the crew behind this magazine! Wish you all the best, girls -- thank youuuuu!!!

This is the sketch for this month's challenge... I sort of flipped it and chopped off one column of squares to make it fit a more narrow card size.

This month's challenge is sponsored by High Hopes Rubber Stamps, and they sent me this adorable image to work with! When the seasons change here we have several weeks of strong winds, and the kids will all be out with their homemade kites, made from plastic shopping bags and palm branches.  It's always so fun to see!

I colored the image (Duckie Flying Kite) using Touch Twin Markers - normally I'd have a color map for you, but there are so many tiny areas in this image, and I really took my time shading the duckie and grass with lots of tiny colored dots... the color map might look a bit scary! All the colors I used are listed below. I also used a white colored pencil to highlight a few areas.

The cloud dies are from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and the sentiment (on an Impression Obsession diecut) is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co.

These are the Touch Twin markers that I used:

Birdhouses

Just digging through the files for inspiration to share today... I have been sooo busy working on things I can't share with you yet! CHA is coming, and I've been working on booth/catalog samples, plus my cards for the Dirty Dozen gallery this month, guest blog posts at Flourishes, and a few other upcoming challenges at Splitcoast, working on new stamp designs..... plus I've also had to reshuffle my priorities this week, as we started school Tuesday!
Here's a card made a little while back with Art Impressions' watercolor stamps - this is WC Birdhouses with some botanical stamps from the clear WC Arbor set- I stamped the images with Versamagic chalk inks, and blended the colors with a water brush, then added shading with other chalk inks and Inktense pencils. The sentiment is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co.
Hope you're having a great week so far!

Flower Soft Topper Hop

The Flower Soft team is hopping today... today we're sharing projects that feature some of our pre-printed kits! If you arrived here from Gini's blog, you're on the right track. If you just happened to stop by, you may want to start from the Flower Soft Blog to make sure you don't miss a thing... because prizes are involved!!

I have several projects to share with you today... I was working with the Die Cut Dimensions Wildflowers, and wanted to show you how diverse this kit is! For my first card, I used the large poppy panel as a topper on a top-fold card. I embossed a few extra flowers and added them on, letting them fall down over the ribbon a little. The sentiment and border are from JustRite Stampers, and the sheet music is a vintage piece I scanned and printed on textured cardstock.This next card was more involved... I masked the daisy panel and stamped this rabbit image over the mask so he appeared to be sitting behind the daisy border (stamp image from Uptown Stamps - Current Critters line, sentiment is from High Hopes). I colored the image in with Prismacolor pencils, and trimmed around a few details in the image, then embossed from the back side of the panel (the same technique I used on the flowers, though they were already cut out for me). I added a few extra daisies over the ones on the panel as well, and sprinkled a little Ultrafine Citrus Crush Flower Soft in each flower center. Finally, I added some extra daisies and Polar White Flower Soft to this watercolored piece... this is a stamped image from Heartfelt Creations that I watercolored using chalk inks and cut out using a Frame die from Spellbinders. It's a soft little Spring-y hangy thing that makes me happy at my desk! As you make your way through the hop remember to comment on each and every post! There will be a prize winner chosen randomly among the blogs. One lucky blog hopper who comments on all the blogs will win a $50 Flower Soft Shopping Spree!!! The blog hop will remain open until midnight CST, April 19. The winner will be announced on the Flower Soft blog on April 20th. I'm glad you stopped by...! Your next stop is Deb Felts' blog, With a Stamp and a Song .... hope you enjoy the hop!

P.S. If you're looking for more Flower Soft ideas, be sure to tune in to Flower Soft TV - a new episode is posted every Friday. You can also register at the FSTV site and have a chance at weekly drawings for free Flower Soft products!

Flower Soft Topper Hop

The Flower Soft team is hopping today... today we're sharing projects that feature some of our new sets of toppers! If you arrived here from the Flower Soft blog, you're on the right track. If you just happened to stop by, you're in luck, because this is the first stop on the hop! And prizes are involved!

I'm sharing 2 cards today, made with Die Cut Dimensions Wildflowers. These sets are so much fun to work with, and versatile for so many types of cards or other projects. My first card was a quick one. I used the precut oval element from the kit, added dimension to the flowers with my ball stylus and some Polar White Flower Soft, and stamped a sentiment from Heartfelt Creations.
Here's a close-up so you can see the dimension:
For my second card I used some of the stand-alone elements from the kit to create a border between my panels. Again, I used my stylus to add dimension to each piece before adding it to the card. I also used the ribbon element, and the edge of a paper doily for more of a shabby chic look. The sentiment is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co.As you make your way through the hop remember to comment on each and every post! There will be a prize winner chosen randomly among the blogs. One lucky blog hopper who comments on all the blogs will win a $50 gift certificate! The blog hop will remain open until 3/22. The winner will be announced on the Flower Soft blog on 3/23.

I'm glad you stopped by... the next stop on the hop is Debbie Sherman's blog!