Cards

Here are a few of the card sets I made for the craft sale on Friday that I didn't end up attending! At least now I have some cards in reserve for when I need them...

Wooden frames

Has it really been about a week since I last posted? I have been very busy trying to get some items made for a craft fair that I was going to participate in today with a few friends. It was kind of a last-minute idea so we were all scrambling to get some things done. And then, last night, everyone bailed out!

So, here at least is what I was working on. The scans are slightly dark and sometimes a little fuzzy because of the depth, but they were the best I could do. I made one of each different theme with the idea to also take orders but I guess that won't happen! I also made several card packets which I will post tomorrow.

Photoshop Elements Homework Weeks 1 & 2

I have finally found some time to play with Photoshop Elements. I am enrolled in a six-week online class with Eclectic Academy to try to learn some of this. The first two lessons totalled 72 pages of information - mostly very technical!! But I managed to wade through and I am posting my homework exercises here so my teacher can view them.

First is the kitten color photo we were given and the assignment was to make it into a sepia photo.

Next is the gorilla photo which we were supposed to improve with either the Auto Fix or manual adjustments. I think the second photo is much improved and it was accomplished with a click of a button!

Here is an old photo of my childhood best friend and me (I'm on the right). The second photo is the one I "fixed" though I don't see too much difference.The last assignment was making "vignettes" by cropping and feathering a photo. I used the same photo as above. The first vignette is rectangular with a black background. The second one is a freehand shape on what I thought was a white background (so it would disappear next to the white blog background), but it looks more pink here. And you really have to look to see the feathered freeform shape.Sunday we will get the assignment for Weeks 3 and 4.

Teaching classes

I am starting a new venture - I will be teaching cardmaking and stamping classes with a group of gals that I met while working at Recollections. I am very excited about this opportunity to continue what I love most - teaching others and sharing my enthusiasm for all kinds of paper arts.

My first class will be spring cards. It's hard to see some of the details in these scans but there's some embossing, vellum and glittery Stickles on these.

The second class will be Mother's Day cards (versatile enough to also be used for other occasions) and include more stamping techniques.

For any local readers, you can find out more about these classes at www.cre8joy.typepad.com .

Easter card

I've been so busy the past week that I never did get around to making St. Patrick's Day cards. And today, I realized I needed to get busy and get at least one Easter card in the mail for my Mom! So here is the quick little card I made her. It's mostly layered papers, but the sweet little bunny (a PSX stamp) was stamped in Brilliance Lightning Black on a champagne shimmery paper. I love Lightning Black as it's not as harsh as regular black and has a goldish shimmer to it.

Instead of creating paper arts this week, I am in the middle of a huge sewing project for a friend. I'm making a king-sized bedspread, four king pillow shams, two 20" decorative pillows, a 20" pillow roll, dresser and nightstand runners and four window valances. There is fabric all over the house! It's lovely Waverly fabric so it's a dream to sew on except for the sheer bulk of the bedspread! I sure hope she likes the ensemble when it's finished.

I've also just signed up for an online class for Photoshop Elements that I recently purchased. It's a six-week course through Eclectic Academy. They have a great assortment of different classes and a few years ago I took one on Altered Books and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have "homework" looming so better start that! I'll be posting the assignments on here as they are completed as the instructor needs to see them.

Travel Fat Book Swap

I am participating in my local group's Fat Book Swap - the theme is "Travel" and the pages are to be 4" x 4". Everyone will make their own covers and this is mine. When I receive all the pages, I will bind it with a red coil binding and the Bind-it-All.



I chose "Paris" as my travel theme. I cut a rectangle for the page, then folded the top down so it measured 4x4. The top flap is painted with black stripes to simulate a French cafe awning with an oval stamped address. For the main part of the page, I painted blue and red stripes on the white background for the French flag, then overstamped with a French script background stamp. I adhered a vintage "Souvenir de Paris" image and the Arc de Triomphe and silver-embossed the Eiffel Tower on black cardstock, cut it out, and attached with pop dots. I black-embossed the Eiffel Tower label on red cardstock and silver-embossed a fleur de lys in the upper right. It's hard to see in the scan but there is an Eiffel Tower charm attached to the red, white and blue fibers. The swap is due on March 25th and I can't wait to see what destinations the others chose.

Art Journal

I've been meaning to start an art journal for a long, long time. I had even saved this nice artist sketchbook that was left over, untouched, from my daughter's college classes over 5 years ago! Last year I finally got around to randomly painting various pages, because I had read that that would help get over the "blank page" syndrome. But that's as far as I got. I took it with me to Chicago recently and FINALLY started one page. I had limited supplies with me but I cut out all these blue definitions from a Xerox ad and started gluing them to the page. It's really hard to read in this scan, but there are some great names: chlorine blue; 6:41 am dawn bllue; tv glow blue; navy blazer blue; blue punch blue. I can't say I love this page, but I am excited I have done at least one. Maybe they will get easier as I go. I think I need to get over the feeling that it should be a "finished" artwork. This is playtime, after all!

Easter Banner received

This is the beautiful Easter banner I received from Joan Wehmhoefer in Washington state. I love everything on this, from the blue velvet ribbons and buttons tied to the ends, the lace attached with light blue brads, the precious vintage image with little bluebirds, the paper flowers with rhinestone and tiny feathers, to the background paper. The backside is finished with music paper and a ribbon bow and floral garlands. Did I say I love this? Thank you so much Joan! What a fun swap this was.

Snow in Texas

Can you believe it? We had snow in Texas yesterday - after temps in the 80's just last week! This is a photo I took out my studio window and you can see the big snowflakes that were coming down. Of course, today the sun came out and all is gone except a tiny bit on north-facing roofs. It was such a pretty sight while it lasted, but I'm glad we don't have to cope with it too often.

Photo share

No art for me the last few days - I have been trying to clean up and reorganize my art studio. Must say I'm not getting very far as I keep finding neat stuff I have to look through! I have way too many magazines, but can't bear to part with most of them!

Here's a photo of my husband and his younger brother in the 1950's. Use as you wish, but I would love to see what you create with this!

ZNE Design Team swap

I have been asked back for the 2008 ZNE Design Team and our first "assignment" is an "April Showers Swap" - we send in 16 items (can be either bought gifties or small artwork we have made) and by the end of March we will receive back 16 different items (one from each DT member).

I made these spring tags using the large, plain manilla shipping tags. I stippled with Distress Inks and stamped the bird images (Invoke Arts) with black permanent ink. I colored in some areas with Prismacolor pencil and added the spring verse (Hero Arts) on vellum with a copper circle clip and a feather. Various fibers are tied through the hole at the top and the backs were painted with watered-down Adirondack Colorwash. They will go in the mail tomorrow.

I can't wait to see what the other gals did!

RAK

This is a 4" x 4" square collage that I sent as a RAK (random act of kindness) to one of the gals in an online group I'm in. Linda is a fantastic artist and shared this image of the little girl on her blog some time ago (http://theartsook.blogspot.com). I love her sweet little face and just had to use her. The "love" was cut out of a Macy's ad - just the right size for this.