LIM42 - Miss you

This week's challenge at Less is More blog is to do a one-layer card featuring silhouettes.  I used watercolor paint to make a wash of green on the background and then stamped my birds (Inkadinkado) and sentiment (retired amuse artstamps).  Tied a piece of copper cording.  Should've stopped there - oh yes, I should've stopped there.  Alas, I did not - I had a thought that some splats would add that extra needed oomph - in fact, it looks as if my card has the "bird flu" - oh well, can't win them all -
Here is a link to a silhouette card I made back in February that I really love - it is definitely not a one layer card but there are no splats to be seen!

Art Journal - She Art 2

Monday marked day 1 of the SheArt2 class taught by Christy Tomlinson - I took the first SheArt class and made this girl who had no face.  However, 

in this class we are learning how to paint faces - Week one includes eyes, noses and mouths.  (Doesn't this girl look a little like Anne Hathaway with blue eyes? - just step back about 10 feet and squint your eyes - do you see the resemblance now?)

Today I played and painted two girls and I am amazed at how they turned out!!  Seriously - they look kinda like people - WHOO HOO for me!!

 Their faces/hair are painted - their clothes are paper pieced.

 Rub-ons, stamps and markers add details -

I should probably quit while I am ahead - Did I ever tell you about the time my mom and I decided to take up tole painting?  Donna Dewberry was in NO danger of losing her job to either of us!  Mom and I gathered up our supplies and got down to business and the best work I ever produced was on a paper plate!!  YUP -  I still have that paper plate to this day - 10 years later - (Mom, are you embarrassed for me?)

That was the finest outcome I had produced in my "painting life" other than the many pieces of furniture that I have repurposed by repainting.  These girls look more like people than my "rose" looked like a flower!
Linking up to Artists in Blogland - Check out all the great work on this site!!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Fall is in the Bag

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger time!!  This card is based on the trigger picture below - I love that bag!  Love the colors and pattern - I even think that peek of orange in the middle of the handles is super cool too!

I figured that this inspiration pic would "trigger" a flurry of circles to appear on cards so I decided to take a different route and try another shape.  Not sure what you call this shape (I should ask Connor since he had Geometry last year) but you can make it too with a 1.25" square punch and a Corner Puncher.

I have a notoriously hard time lining things up perfectly so I used a gridded ruler sheet to line these shapes up the way I wanted - flipped them over, applied glue - then set the kraft paper background right over them.  Used scissors to trim where a few errant pieces went over the edge.

LOVE the graphic look of this card and it is a perfectly "mail-able" card since there aren't lots of bumpy layers!  All cardstock and supplies are from a muse|studio and available online.

LIM41, Embellish - LEAVES

Leaves!!  They are everywhere right now - and not attached to the trees!  There is a house in particular that I think about every year at this time.  It is a teeny cottage on a tiny lot near where we live that has the most beautiful huge tree in the front yard.  I'm pretty confident that they bought that house in the spring, summer or winter.  Why??  Because in the fall, when the leaves drop, that front yard is literally about 8" deep in leaves!!

We are suckers for gorgeous trees too - one of the big attractions to our home was the huge tree in the backyard - so gorgeous but we have a long haul to get the leaves to the front curb to be picked up.  As much as I hate those leaves right now, I am very grateful for their shade in the summer!!  Today's card is based on the One Layer Challenge on the Less is More Blog and the colors from the Embellish Color Trends Challenge.

The leaf stamp is from the Autumn Beauty stamp set and the sentiment is from Monogram Frames.  Ink colors are Currant, Eucalyptus and Fern.  All supplies are from a muse|studio and are available in my online shop!

CFC28, FTL166 - Too stinkin' cute!

Made this card the other day but didn't have a chance to upload until now - based on the CAS-ual Friday challenge of using a tag coupled with a perfect sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping.

 All products are a muse|studio and available in my online shop.

Art Journal - Birds!

More art journal fun - this month the Sketchbook Challenge is Imaginary Animals.  Granted, birds like this aren't all that imaginary but I do think I would look twice if a bird with "backward legs" was walking around my backyard!!

The birds themselves were cut with Nestabilities dies from dictionary paper - I sure have gotten a lot of use from my $1 French dictionary!!

The negative page was adhered with Mod Podge in my journal and then painted with acrylic paints.  Letter stickers, rub-ons, stencils, oil pastels, markers, Tim Holtz tissue Tape, stamps, etc add lots of fun details -

 BALANCE IS HARD - That is one smart little birdie!

Have you tried the new Martha Stewart paints yet?  They can be used on virtually any material - These are the colors I started with -

Surf, Gray Wolf, Cloud, Beach Glass, Sycamore Bark.  Since then I've bought 5 more colors including Wet Cement (hee hee - I love that name - how exotic??!!)

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." - Lou Holt

Show and Tell Saturday - Friendship Soldered Necklaces with Leaves

A couple weekends ago I got to spend a great day with my friend, Kim in Glendale, KY shopping and eating yummy food.  We had such a good time and it was such a beautiful day - there were oodles of the most colorful autumn leaves that I had ever seen.   Leaves so pretty that I wouldn't even complain about raking them (I might grumble a little - I am only human).  Anyhoo, to commemorate our fun day I decided to take a couple of the leaves that I had gathered and make soldered pendant necklaces for Kim and I.

I can never resist a monogram so I stamped a tiny initial onto some linen and then backed it with a 1" square punched section of leaf.  The glass is from Ranger and the copper tape/lead free solder is from Simply Swank.  Another reason these necklaces are special to me is that I learned to solder in a class that I took with Kim.  Today we went to lunch - look at what I ate - 

Yummy bento box lunch with a crunchy shrimp sushi roll!!  

I'm linking up to the Artists in Blogland: Show and Tell Saturday - be sure and check that site out to see loads of beautiful creations!