Journal pages: Kate's book

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More pages from the round robin journal project in which I'm taking part. Kate's theme was "word play," and I came up with bird idioms & bug idioms--hence the "birds & bees." I love playing with words so this was a very fun pass for me. I'm getting more comfortable working with brighter colors--breaking out of my vintage rut! These are transparencies layered over stamping, paint, Color Mists, feathers, velvet leaves, etc. The bright color mists are from Outside the Margins.

Open Sez-me!

On CCSwaps, we just did a fun "Open Sesame" ATC. I had a lot of fun creating this. I had just finished watching "Casino Royale" and I think it influenced this ATC. :)

I think I'll make more "interactive" ATCS.

At the ranch

I wanted to do something special for my twins' first-grade teacher. A couple of weeks ago, she hosted her entire class--and alums--at her 10-acre ranch for an overnight camping trip. The kids got to ride horses, drive the tractor (with help), camp and generally have a great time.

The pictures are all from her ranch. I was supposed to be taking pics of all the kids (and I did), but I really was drawn to the patina on the side of the barn, her canoes, the animals, a rusty sign on a fence. These photos are all from her place and I ran then through some filters.

I started with a canvas board, painted it with acrylic washes, added a little texture paint on the side and stamped into it. I added some oil pastels around the edge. Then I added photos, inks and do-dads. Hope she likes it.

Nurture

#2 in a series. Acrylic on mat board, cotton, Colormist sprays, pen and ink, metallic pen, stamps and cardstock, wire, label tape. This one is a gift to a teacher for all of her nurturing this year. My daughter has had a great fourth grade year.

ATC with the string background

And finally, here's a finished something with the background below. I put this together with scraps on my craft table.

One more string background

For this one, I smeared the leftover paints from the other projects onto a manila tag and stamped into that with the other string stamp (uninked).

Adding the string stamp

Here are the same backgrounds (see next couple of posts for where this started), now stamped with my string stamp using Lumiere acrylics, and finally overstamped again with some text and misc. images.

Backgrounds with Radiant Rain sprays

These are the chalk-stamped backgrounds after being sprayed with Radiant Rain sprays. I used Lemon Drop and Stardust on the sand dollar background, and periwinkle on the seedhead one.

Start of backgrounds for string

OK, here are a couple of backgrounds. Tonight I'm going to give them a light wash of some kind of paint or spray. Tomorrow I hope to start stamping with my string (see following post) and do some other layering.

Playing with string & glue

One of my Yahoo groups has been playing with string. I have felt no creative stirrings with string, but I just started playing tonight. Here is a picture of the Penscore foam, string (hemp cord) and glue I pulled out tonight. I even have an idea of how to use it, but it needs to dry.

I didn't worry about being gloopy with the glue (great word, thanks Trish!). It'll dry.

Magic Number 9

For my niece Caity's 9th birthday, I wanted to do something memorable. She truly has enough toys and clothes! She's a great kid and I love her a lot.

I settled on this tin, which was white when I started. I colored it with Adirondack alcohol inks, then collaged various papers and elements onto it.

Inside, there are 9 "wishes & dreams" on little scrolls--things I hope will happen for her in her life. I also included 9 dollar bills to make a few little material wishes come true.

This was a really fun project!