Lofty Aspirations

Recently, I came across a fabulous blog - Letting in the Light by Kim Henkel.  Her work is gorgeous and she often paints on teabag paper.  Loved that idea so much that I had to give it a try.

This is a family size teabag opened up and laid flat to dry - Look closely and you can see the staple and a bit of the string left over - One of my favorite parts are the bits of dried tea flakes that are stubbornly clinging to the paper.

Do you like this fern?  It was made with paper clay and Martha Stewart molds that I picked up.

Here's an important tip - I only got the fragile fern to stay in shape by letting it dry completely overnight before removing it from the mold.  

The teabag paper totally soaked up the paint and it bled through and started to stick to the paper behind it - next time I will paint on top of my Ranger craft mat.  I really like that dreamy look on her face - she's thinking about all the exciting things that she'd like to try.

Some bits of Seven Gypsies gaffer tape and a computer generated sentiment (Impact Label from dafont) finished up this page - 

Linking to Paint Party Friday, 

Art Journal Every Day and

Creative Every Day.

iPhone Case Design Challenge - Please help me win!!

Do you think this would be a cool iPhone case??  

Uncommon Goods recently issued a iPhone case design challenge and MY entry (Dictionary Page Leaves) was chosen as one of the 15 semi-finalists!!  

This design originated in my art journal last November - wet, shiny leaves in my backyard inspired a page with sketched shiny leaves embellished with my handcarved chevron stamp, paint splats and white gel pen.

I'd be thrilled if you'd go directly to my page and give my design a THUMBS UP!!

THANK YOU!!!!

Linking to Illustration Friday - Shiny.

AJED - The art of being happy. . .

This is a rather busy page - Started with the theme of OPPOSITES from the Creative Every Day blog - in this case the opposites are the colors.  A good challenge for me since I rarely use blue colors although I am rather partial to orange (all earth tones really). 

At the time when I drew the big hair I thought to myself, 

"Self, wouldn't it be a great idea to fill the entire hair with your favorite tangle - Paradox?"   

That is why it is never really a good idea to talk to yourself - Sometimes your own ideas give you a crick in the neck!

Quote is courtesy of Henry Ward Beecher.  Do you like the funky orange background?  I stamped that with my very own newly carved stamps!  Kim came over yesterday and, since we are both taking Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's online stamp carving class, we carved up a storm.  This is truly a fabulous class!!  LOVING every minute of it -  Lesson 2 is learning how to carve stamps that nest within each other - that's what the two smaller square stamps are - 

The larger stamp is a total knock-off of Julie's example stamp but that is okay until I get my bearing with the whole carving thing - then I will branch out on my own more.

Anyhoo - I think my lady is pretty fabulous - very different from anything I've done before which seems to be a repeating theme lately - "TRY SOMETHING NEW" 

It is hard to tell in the pictures for some reason but there are two colors of blue in the hair fitting into the Play Date Cafe Color Challenge for this week.

Linking to Art Journal Every Day.

2nd Floor Challenge #5 - Found Object

Time for a new Second Floor Challenge - this time the challenge is to create something that incorporates or is inspired by a found object.  Can you guess what my found object is?

10 points if you guessed paint splat!!  I was splashing paint around on a big canvas outside a while back and when I got done I saw this little splat - it is less than 1" big but it looked just like a bird.  Go figure!  

How serendipitous!!  I had some background papers that I made on a slow day for fun (squirt three colors of acrylic paint onto paper and then scrape around with an old credit card for an interesting background) and the aqua/yellow/peach one called out to me.  I drew on a bird/branch silhouette with a pencil and then painted all around with white paint.  Thick right by the silhouette and lighter toward the edges so that the texture of the background would show through.  A fun technique that I will definitely revisit sometime in the future!
Linking to:  Artists in Blogland June theme - DREAM and
Paint Party Friday.

Illustration Friday: HURRY!

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever" - Carl Sagan

That's a problem of mine - I see butterflies and think they need to hurry - they have so much to do and so little time.  They, however, seem perfectly content fluttering slowly from flower to flower taking their time and enjoying the day.  I'm thinking I could learn a lot from a butterfly.

Inspired by the Illustration Friday theme of Hurry! this very simple art journal page has no paint!  Just stamped images, sticker letters, the "hurry" section from my French dictionary and Washi tape.  So simple - black, white and cream - I like it.
Linking to Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day.

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Man-Tastic!

Hadn't made a card or played along with my favorite challenge blogs in too long so I thought I'd remedy that with this card made for my husband.  He definitely works hard to support his family and I am truly thankful for all he does for us.

The inspiration comes from the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger pictured above that was simulated with an A Muse stamp (masked and inked) from the Friend to Friend set in Eucalyptus, Ocean, French Roast and Cranberry inks.

This card is also for the One Layer Wednesday #90 - Dudes Rule challenge.  Hope you've had a great weekend - sure has been beautiful here!

Art Journal Every Day -

Guess who is the guest poster on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog today??!!   ME!  Can you believe it - I've been pinching myself ever since she e-mailed me and asked me - ME - if I wanted to do it!!  WHOO HOO - I am super excited about it - if you want to see more pictures of this layout just click here and check it out!