Altered Metal Goodness!

--OK, deep depression: only 2 more weeks to go in Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. Yup, week #33. And I was kinda hoping to pull some stops out on this one, but Dakota got lose, found her down the road, and my muse is still either still out looking for her, or hiding from the paranoia/stress now everytime we put her out. Oh, its not just her, we also have her aunt Kiera for the week; 2 huskies howling around..yup, no hope for the muse here. So, here is what we have...

The back layer was painted with a Pearl Adirondack Dabber, then with regular black acrylic paint (DI Ink just didn't cover), then embossed with the cracked glass folder, and it was supposed to look like a cracked window when all was said and done, nevermind the over image is too big; it just sorta failed. I love the way the saying turned out; lettuce, butterscotch and lemonade AI's used here. And then the lemonade, meadow and wild plum on the metal bits. Really hard to tell with the photo. The stamp came from Onyxpressions. And with one day left in the week; it sums me up completely...throughly used up and worn out!! LOL! Hop on over to Linda's and check out the good examples of the Altered Metal Alcohol Inks from page 56. See ya next week!

WOYWW #90

Good morning everyone! I got home early from work yesterday; had to get a filling replaced, and besided the numb feeling I was chewing my cheek, felt pretty good, so put the dogs out and got to work. My goal to get the March B-Day cards started, and do this weeks Compendium Challenge; and thats what's here...I'll be posting that shortly. I do so love alcohol inks! I think I need a few more colors; I love the new brights and pastels. Now, you may notice: I have a little drawer with my foam pads for my distress inks. I just can not figure out how many of you have the actual wooden holders for the pads! I had two, and it was driving me nuts changing the foams around, etc. Plus, the space needed for having mulitples for each color!! So I went with just the foams, and it seems to work just as well even without having a handle. I have another little drawer for my alcohol felts. If I'm using a similar color scheme, I reuse the felts until they're "done"! LOL! They seem to last for quite a while though. And yes, I still use the handle for the alcohol inks: that would be really messy otherwise! LOL! So, go visit the other

Wednesday Workspace wonders over at Stamping Ground!

Oh, last shot: one of my kittys, Ponder, has discovered the yarn basket: he will be banished like the dogs now too! LOL!

Inking...Masking....Stamping....#32!

Wow...week #32 in the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge with Linda @ StudioL3! Winding down, but I think the best have been saved for last. I admit, I love using masks, I just never remember to do it...unless my back is against the wall, and I have tried all other ridiculous solutions,which never work, and then, Duh! try a mask! LOL!

In case you haven't noticed, and I have only done 3 items with them, but I have a thing for pears...maybe I see myself in them, I don't know. I don't eat them raw, generally, but do make a mean pear crisp! And I have almost every pear stamp there is! So, it was the first stamp I thought of to give this a go (oh, and the fact that it would be easy to cut out the mask..that was in the brain as well!)

Now, (and I actually have to be quick..posting at work..shh) I probably could have made the background darker so the pear would have stood out more, but I really liked it at this level, and I actually remember all the previous challenges where I mentioned I should have stopped 2 steps earlier! I will, though, at least I think I will...go back and put some rock candy stickles inside the pear...today it seems to need it! The Pear came from Art Impressions (I so love this line; I really need to use them more often; they can be very grungy too!), the Pear Text came from A Stamp in the Hand, the Pear Kanji came from Onyxpressions (spelling?) and the Latin Text came from Anna Griffin. Yeah, that was done with Tea Dye DI...was a bit too red, maybe Pumice would have been better...but it does sorta go with the Aged Mahogany that was rubbed on the edges.

Well, better get going; need to keep the job to keep buying stuff! Have a great weekend (Holiday to you US-er's). Happy Crafting!

WOYWW #89

Good morning everyone!! And how busy everyone seems to be this week! To see what I mean, hop over to Julia's site and check it out. I got some serious time in this past weekend; what with valentines day and birthdays...mostly finished too! Except for this mess, which was left Sunday night, and is still sitting here this morning. I have realized I have a rather large hole in my stamping supplies; one that is required for all the "boy"; "Guy" "Manly" cards that are cropping up in my life. This one is for my to be 4 year old nephew. Mostly into trucks and construction, but his dad owns turtles, snakes and lizzards, so this is where I'm going this year. It might be a redux for his 8 year old brother in a few months...LOL! The background piece on the right side is the batik technique from Tim's book (yeah, I actually used an iron for this kid...you know I care!) I'll post a close-up once its done. The stamps are my first un-mounteds, designed for fabric batik; can't remember the company now though. They have little iguanas designed to look like a damask pattern.

The big lizzard, again, unmounted, before I learned to write this stuff down, is from a company I just don't remember. I stamped him with the Adirondack Copper Dabber, then thought of the dried marigold stickles....THEN I thought of coloring the triangles with a prismacolor pencil..yup, stickles not dry, pencil has orange glitter glue all over the tip...should sharpen off though. Oh, and I also tried to use a Glaze Pen in thet teeny tiny eye detail..while not dry...sometimes I wonder where my brain drifts off too! Now, as of this moment, I have absolutely no idea how this will come together...none whatsoever! So wish me luck tonight! (and--he's 4, not a NY art critic!..gotta relax! LOL!)

Oh, and for those who wanted to see the finished step-son card, here it is. Even with the puppy vs. feather insident, I think it pulled toghether rather nicely. Again, the background is the rusted enamel from Tim's Compendium of Curiousities: you all gotta go check that one out! It came out very suede-y for this one. Have a great crafty week everyone! I'll be popping in on your desks a bit later!

Thank you Shaz!

I'm so thrilled!! Shaz, over on Silverwolf Cards, has very kindly chosen me to give the Liebster Blog award to. I can't tell you what this means to me! My blog started primarily for linking to the Compendium of Curiosites Challenge, and has slowly become my little gallery for sharing. And I'm honestly touched every time someone stops over and makes a comment.

The 'rules' to the award are: to thank the person who gave it to you, post the award on your blog, and link back to the giver, choose 3-5 people who's work you admire, and pass the award on to them.The first two are easy, Shaz, I thank you very much indeed, and the award is duly posted. Choosing who to pass it to is the difficult part. I have had my blog running now for a little under a year, and I have 'met' so many wonderful crafters, and been given so much inspiration on their blogs, I could happily award this to every single on of you. However the blogs I am nominating are:

Julie, Jul's Art Niche, my best friend and crafting buddy!
Linda, Studio L3, for opening my eyes to blogdom and these wonderful challenges.
Netty, Netty's Craftings, who does such great dimensional work, and always takes time to stop
in and look around.
Yelowflower, YelowFlowers Garden, another Compendium Challenger, and has a great sense of
color!
Terry, at Terry's, who not only does cool work, but keeps defending my dog, despite all the photographic proof that she should be exiled from the craft room!

So, I hope I got everything to go right!! Thank you again Shaz, and thank you to my nominees, for sharing their wonderful creativity as well! Have a great crafting week everyone!

Rusted Enamel-or suede, kinda...hmmm

Hello everyone! Wow, week 31 already at Linda's Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. It is very sad we are almost done! She promises something just as exciting will start up, but hasn't leaked any details.






This week, we are on page 41, Rusted Enamel. And let me just say...how very cool! Never would have thought of this in a million years!! Now, my first piece (above) had a much more rusted look. Not sure why, as I really like it.

The pieces I tried last night only had the bearest amount of "rusting". But, it does look very "leathery" . This card is for my Step-son's birthday. I used the sage DI, which came out very green (I found it doesn't work so well on regular paper, so I cut the baroque label out of old manila folders) which might account to the color shift. The feathers were a challenge; more so as while I was working, my pup Dakota had managed to grab a bag of the smaller feathers and had them shrewn all over the newly cleaned carpet!!! It's a good thing she's cute; otherwise she could likely be dead! LOL! The two valentines ones aren't done yet, I'll try to get them on later this weekend.

The background is from the "Vintage" pack from Core'dinations paper. I love this stuff; sanded and frayed; I can't wait for the new Adirondack and and Distress matching colors to become available! Well, best get back to work! I hope everyone has a great crafty weekend!

WOYWW #88

Well, this is my desk as of Wed. night, 10:18 pm, when I realized I really had to go to bed; I'll need to find out if its ok to post to The Stamping Gounds post on Thurs., as by the time I download the pictures, then try to upload on dial-up, I might as well wait until work on Thurs., as it would take just as long! Now, to see what this is all about, go visit Julia, and then check out everyone else's workspaces!

Now, mine is in the midst of the Compendium of Curiosities challenge, where we are working with the Rusted Enamel technique. Very cool! So check back later today or maybe Friday morning (depending on my sneaking time at work to do a post! LOL!) and see everything up close and personal! Have a good week everyone!

Altering with Paint: Metal, Walls, some carpet....

Greatings everyone!! If you don't follow the "What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday" series from Julia at The Stamping Ground, then you have missed my most exciting news (you could jump to my previous post, though): I have finished (almost) converting my Step-sons old room into my new craft studio! Good bye only one-outlet, ceiling light, no heat drafty space over the garage; hello bright yellow walls, an "as clean as Stanley Steamer could get it-it should be torn up" carpet, and a chance to actually get a place for everything, with everything in, err, yeah, so that part may not happen. I do have to leave a corner for a guest bed, small dresser and tv stand, so I am having spacial issues, and haven't figured out where to move my stamps, much less my photography items and music. But it is great fun! And, this is my first official piece of art that has come from my new room!

So, on to the Challenge; this week, Linda at Studio L3 (oh, I need a studio name!) has given us Altered Metal with Paint, page 48 of The Compenium of Curiosities. I think I'm going to put this in a frame, and start my wall of art pieces. Grungy brown frames, etc., will look great on the bright yellow walls! So, back to this piece. I didn't like all the blues or dark brown paints I had...this is the Lifetime muse token from Tim, and it was already a nice brown, so I went with the Lemonade, which was, eh, so then I added some Lettuce dabber, and finally toned it with some espresso. Still not thrilled with it, as I had already done the umbrella man and saying with a really cool EP I found while moving: Jasper from Judikins. A red-brown-coppery mix. I can't believe I don't have a raisin or current dabber!! Anyway, I need to figure which side is "up" with the embossing fades; I think I did this one backwards, which made it really hard to stick everything down. After trying double tape, a glue stick, and finally CH's matte gesso, it still didn't like sticking to the grunge...which was covered with Ancient page, antique linen and tea dye DI's. Any ideas? So, I better get back to work...so I can afford some of the new releases from Tim...very exciting things out there! Have a very crafty week everyone.

WOYWW #87

(Enter the fanfare from Harry Potters Tri-Wizard Cup) Dah..dadadaa da...dadadaaa da..(you know!!) For I am unveiling....MY NEW heated CRAFTROOM!! And the cool new desk that Hubby gave me for Christmas! The Step-son has been on his own now for 2 years, and doing very well, so I have taken over the room!

Now, not all that long ago, spackling, painting, etc. would have taken a weekend; we are looking at 5 weekends here! (very sad) I did sorta promise that this would also be a guest room, and the only place to put the futon is in the big full corner, which is really where I should be doing this...so I'm sorta in a line, with this desk in the window dormer. But it can roll out if needed. (My old space, in the unheated, only one outlet bonus room over the garage was set is a very useful U-shape.)

You may notice, I still haven't moved in my wood stamps..all 4 drawer-organizers full...or my 6-cube grid thing-y, that holds all the embellishments, books, envelopes, misc. cardstock, etc. So, I'm still not really up-and running. Did start working on my Compendium challenge, but too much stuff was still in the old area. But it's a very exciting start!! (Just being able to heat emboss, and still keep the radio and light on-not to mention not being in sub-zero temperatures... makes me giddy!) Thank you for allowing me to share! No-one at work could quite grasp my excitement. And next week, hopefully there will be real art goin' on here! No go over to the Stamping Ground, and see some very well used art desks! Stay warm all!