FTL158, Embellish Paint and Mist Challenge

"I've been misting/splattering up a storm around these parts here lately.  Why, I even made a flower outta burlap.  Gotta dash - the calf has done busted outta the corral."        - The Crafting Cowgirl

Colors courtesy of the Embellish Paint or Mist Challenge.  Layout from Clean & Simple's FTL158 sketch.  

Patterned paper from Basic Grey (Ambrosia, Basics Kraft); SU! ribbons; PTI sentiment; Making Memories cabachon; Glimmer Mist (Blue Skies, Key Lime Pie); Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

CAS136 - Leaves

This week's Clean and Simple Challenge at Splitcoaststampers is the theme of "Leaves" - While my immediate thought was to stamp some fall foliage a different technique won out -

I got my Fall SLICE cartridge out and cut some leaves which I then misted over with some Inkadinkadoo sprays (Sunny Yellow and Raspberry).  Big sentiments from PTI (Think Big Favorites #6) and some random splats (Liquitex ink - Transparent Raw Umber) make striking, quick cards!!

Can you see the shimmer?  I totally think it was worth the overspray on my husband's cell phone that make his speaker pink - don't you??  YIKES!!

Art Journal - Alisa Burke inspired

Recently, I discovered the wonders of Alisa Burke and her blog - Redefine Creativity.  WOW!!  That blog and I spent several delightful hours together hanging out - me fawning over the blog and the blog demurely whispering, "thanks, I'm happy you are enjoying me so much". . .who paints their hallway?  Alisa does; who paints watercolor shells in her art journal (complete with a video)?  Alisa does; who does amazing free motion stitching, has a book out and offers online classes?  Alisa does.  I could go on and on but now it is time to talk about how cute my art journal page is. . .after all this is my blog. . .

I love these doodled flowers!!  So fun to draw - painted with my watercolors and then matted with black in my art journal on a bed of Mod Podge covered paper bags.  Too much color frightens me so I toned it down with the black and kraft but that makes the colors pop from the page!!  Egads!  What was I thinking?  har har

Look what I painted/doodled on the other page - still vibrant and graphic but only in yellow/black/white.  I've got big plans for that page that will be revealed in a future post - - - -
It is a rainy dreary day here - how's yours?

LIM33, CFC20, PDCC99 - Thought of you today. . .

This week's CAS-ual Friday challenge is to make a mini card - This 3" sweetie uses the current Play Date Cafe Challenge colors of lavender, yellow and white.

The Less is More Challenge is "anything goes" - they are aiming for 1,000 players so be sure and link up your CAS cards!  I'm sure they will appreciate it -

Got a chance to play with my new a•muse|studio heart dies.  It is always fun to turn your cardstock "inside out" - using a die makes that color visible from the outside - some of the new a•muse|studio felt is featured inside the card - that stuff cuts like a dream!!  The woodgrain impression plate adds some texture to the white space.

This is just the sort of card I like to hide in my husband's work clothes.  Makes him happy when he finds it and since I have a bad memory and usually forget about putting it there it makes me happy too.

All supplies are available in my online a•muse|studio shop!

Reject Blog Hop -

Another Paper Crafts call for submission - another rejected card (silhouette call) for the Reject Blog Hop hosted over at Amber's fabulous blog Damask Love.  Did you realize that Paper Crafts received over 1,300 submissions for the 100 spots in the March/April issue of the magazine?  YUP - not great odds there. . . oh well - I'll just console myself with chocolate - YUM!

OLW64 - Color it!

One Layer Wednesday time and I am "tickled pink" with my card - hee hee.  The challenge is to stamp with an outline stamp (a•muse Smile Inside) and then color with whatever medium you choose.

A Copic Raw Silk (E53) marker kept the plain flowers from disappearing into the background then a colored flower was paper pieced from white cardstock and sparkled up with Glossy Accents.  A little bit of piercing and wavy stitching adds some interest to the bottom of the card to ground the row of flowers.

Repetitive stamping is a good way to make a single small stamp fill an entire cardfront.  

All supplies available in my a•muse|studio online shop!

Donna Downey inspired "P" page - Art Journal

Do you watch the Inspiration Wednesday videos on Donna Downey's blog, Simply Me?  If not, you are really missing some fabulous creations - Recently, Donna did a page inspired by the letter "P".

If you've ever watched Wheel of Fortune you know that the most common letters are R, S, T, L, N and E but since Paper, Pencils, Pens, Pigment, Pastels, Paint all start with P then that is a more obvious direction to take for the crafty people!

Although my layout is quite a bit "busier" than Donna's keep in mind that she IS an artist and I've merely played one on TV (no, not really) - I'm still pretty happy with it though. . .
Here an exhaustive list of "p" products - provided I remember them all - Punched Paper bag, Pearls, Pastels, Pink, Plaid, PinkPaislee rub-on, Poisson(fish) on "p" dictionary page, Perturbed, Pen/ink drawing, Painted/Penciled birds, Picture/Photo of Paintbrushes, Pattern of Pencils, Purple Paint with Polka dots, Patterned Paper, Plant, Puffy Paint . . .