Shade Tree of Love

Here's my project for the Mixed Media challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  The challenge is to either use a hole in your project or to make something beautiful out of an "oops".  I chose Option #2.  This page is from my Art Journal.  I worked on this awhile ago.  It started out as my mixed media projects usually do...a little of everything.  The circles on the left where punched out of a baby shower invitation.  I was making a stencil but thought I'd use the circles too.  So I adhered them and then painted over them.  Sprayed some distressed ink and then drew circles around them.  The right side, I adhered some paper tickets that I had laying on my desk.  I didn't know what my plans were but it just seemed random enough to be cool.  Well, I was wrong.  I regretted it almost as soon as I put them down.  After throwing some paint, ink, sprays, stencils, etc, I still did not like what was happening.

I did however love the left side circles.  With the pink background it sort of looked like balloons in a pink sky.  I loved that and wanted to keep that side.  Now what....

Sky = tree scene...so now the tree idea.  So I cut out a "fluff" for the tree and adhered it.  Then I used a brown ink spot to just spread into a trunk.  I cut some branches and put them in the tree...hated it!  So then I decided to use punched hearts for the "leaves".  I grabbed my green scraps and punched away.  I glued the hearts within the tree.  Then I painted a watered down green acrylic paint wash over them.  Used a baby wipe to remove some of the paint to show the patterned paper.  Charcoal pencil for shading everything!

Then I grabbed some small stamps and started randomly stamping shapes as flowers on the bottom.  Used a doily as a stencil and randomly painted white acrylic.  I added some teal ink right above the "grass area" to add some blue to the sky because before that it was all pink.  I added the K+D in the heart on the tree trunk - FUN!

After all that, I decided it needed something on the left side.  I added the house.  The base is an old book page; roof is scrap paper and the red door.  Again, used charcoal pencil to shade.  I want to add a quote but I'm not sure what yet.  Oh, before I forget...I put the moustache down at the same time of the tickets.  I thought it adds a little humor and kept it there!

All ink is Stampin' Up!

Heart Punch is also SU!

Acrylic Paint is assortment

White Pen is Sigma (geez, is that the name??)

Pocket Pages Completion

So I finally finished my pocket pages for my Orlando trip.  I'm so excited because it took a really long time to complete.  I pushed myself out of the box and loved making these pages.

The Incredibles pages are my favorite.  I loved the challenge of the 4x6 and 3x4 bases that I had to work with.  Very easy way to get through and scrap a lot of photos.
Here are some photos:

Memories and Broken Heart

I just realized that I stamped Sept 25th instead of May 25 on this.  Well, I'll cover it somehow and restamp.  DUH...

Memorial Day 2015 - May 25th:

We got a call at 7:59 a.m., Grandpa Charles passed away.  He was 82.  Maybe we weren't completely surprised but it was still unexpected.  My father-in-law was a hardworking man who did his best to make his family happy.  He was quiet and didn't say much, but if we needed him, he would be there.  You know I'm always ready to say that we weren't really that close to him, but once I started going through my memories, he is going to be missed.  Charles did magic with his roast.  He never shared the recipe so now it's lost, but he always brought a huge pan of his special roast with him to every party.  He always asked how things were, did we need any help, and was genuinely concerned with our family.  As I am writing this, I am looking at a 21 year old family portrait of my four kids and remembered that Charles bought my daughter's dress that she's wearing.  I remember buying the boys' shirts to match the dress.  How quickly all these special little things are forgotten.

I put together this Art Journal page because my heart really is breaking.  After my dad died two years ago, Charles was the first person I called once the funeral was over.  I don't even know why, he just came to me and I felt the need to call him.

Mixed media has been my creative outet.  

You Got Some Xplaining to Do

Even though I was at a Mother's Day Weekend Crop last weekend, I didn't have a chance to take any photos.  I finished so many layouts.  It was a very successful weekend.  The weather was perfect and the food and company was amazing.

I did not spend any time in the Command Center this past week.  I really, really, really need to clean that room!  LOL

I need to unpack my bags for sure...

I thought I'd share some photos that Kenny and I took last month.  We went to a "Hollywood Premier" party.  Red carpet and everything.  We were asked on the invitation to dress as our favorite celebrity and here we are as Lucy and Ricky.

I do have to admit that we had many cocktails but had a blast taking these photos.

Keep Cool!

Art Journal Fun

I've never been good at drawing flowers but apparently I'm on roll.  This Art Journal has really given me freedom to explore.  The whole "just paint over it and start over" theory has really given me some freedom.

So here's the recent floral pages I've done.  No...not the best flowers you've ever seen painted, but fun..for sure LOL

Birthday Thank Yous

Sisters...you gotta love them, right?  So it's two days before my nephew's birthday party and my sister calls asking if I can help with goodie bags.  She KNOWS, I just don't fill a bag with goodies.  I have to do something creative.  So of course I say yes even though I really have no time to do it.

He didn't have a specific theme so first I thought, Oh, I'll make some balloons or stars or something "boyish" and generic, but then I did some pinterest surfing.  (Is there another word for that??)  I saw these cute monster cards which required a lot of punched shapes.  I loved them!  But I also knew I wasn't going to punch individual circles for teeth.  So, as usual being inspired by this idea, I came up with my own bright, cute little monsters.

So, going directly to my pile of scraps, I cut two each of 2.5x3" plain cardstock.  (x 15 since I am making 15 of them - in other words...30 LOL).  So, I made different shades of blue, green, yellow, red, and pink.  I love that his favorite color is pink :).

Then I grabbed some scrap gray for the eyeball bases.  15 of 1" circles and 15 of 3/4" circles.  White scraps for 15  3/4"  circles and 15 1/2" circles.  Black scrap for 30 1/4" circles.  I wanted the eyes different sizes to give a quirky look.  I grabbed more scrap white cardstock and punch strips of scallopped edges.  These are for the teeth.

After assembling the eyes, and punching the teeth.  I grabbed half of the bases and used my Creative Memories circle cutter to create a rounded edge on them.  Assembled all the faces and then mounted them on the matching color base.

Here's some photos:

A Little Whimsy

Although I haven't posted in awhile, I have been busy in the command center.  This project I did on Sunday.  Do you remember the canvas I painted during that Canvas and Cabernet event for my sister's birthday?  Well, I knew I didn't like it and I knew I'd eventually paint over it.  So I did...and here it is:

First I applied gesso on top of the original painting.  After that, I cut out and applied seven book page circles.  At that point, I painted blue around the circles for the sky and green on the bottom.  The rest are just an assortment of acrylic paint, water color pens, metal markers, black and white ink, etc.  I really didn't have any kind of idea what i was going to do until I did it.  Take a closer look, I did all kinds of crazy things.

I haven't decided yet, but this may be my Apricot Fiesta entry this year.  This is a mixed media piece.