heart the art: week 13 (need)

this week's HEART the ART prompt is "NEED" but gina wanted us to think beyond money and material things...here's what she had to say,

"That's what this week's art prompt is about. What you need. Something you need that isn't money though. Something you might need from someone else or many some else's. Hugs, understanding, support?? There is so many things that sometimes people need in life and just don't get. "

as i thought about this, i realized something i seem to really need lately is outside approval, and i'm not sure that's necessarily such a good thing all the time. on the other hand, i think we probably all have our weak moments...and then other times when we're much more confident; if we're lucky, hopefully they balance out.

(sassafras paper; vintage illustration; dymo labels; making memories alphabet stamps; versa ink; signo pen)

i am having a GREAT TIME with these prompts and now i can't wait until saturday for the new one!

it worries me...

...how funny i find some of the LOLcats.
this one, for example:

♥ happy tuesday, darlings! ♥

i used almost the entire pack of stickers on one card

and i am fine with that!

see, the way i look at it, i have two hobbies: buying art supplies--which i enjoy very much--and making stuff, which is also fun! the fact that hobby #2 makes excellent use of the things acquired via hobby #1 is an *AWESOME* bonus, in my opinion!!! and when you consider that hobby #2 also allows me to save $2.50 a pop on boring flat store-bought greeting cards, i figure i am up on the deal! :)

so do you want to see the card with all the stickers on, then? cool. here it is:

(patterned paper: basic grey & sei; stickers: sandylion; chipboard: fancy pants; inkjet transparency: embossing folder: cuttlebug; staples; pens: sharpie; rhinestones: michaels (re-colored w/copics); other: mylar stars in several sizes, plus tiny star-shaped nail art gems, glitter glue; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, glue dots, uhu gluestick)

this is for my friend's son who's turning three next month. he's one of the few people i know who loves robots and monstas as much as i do, so i am hoping he will enjoy space aliens, too! i started out using this week's sketch from friday sketchers:

but as you can see, my card mutated quite considerably from the plan... (space aliens will do that every time!!!) ...so i don't think i can really send this in afterall. it's a GREAT sketch, though, maybe i will have another go.

i was pretty much enitrely on track until i decided--midway through the process--that this should be a shaker card. then it became necessary to lose both the large square frame, and the small rectangular inset, in order to have more visible "window" to see the stars and small rocket ships inside.



at that point i also set aside the scalloppy cardstock circle i'd traced from this piece of fancy pants chipboard, and decorated the piece itself to serve as a more solid frame. i colored it with a blue sharpie, embossed with cuttlebug's swirly e/f (i had to run it through twice due to size, but it came out pretty well!) and then embellished it with a silver metallic sharpie. i backed it with an inkjet transparency, added the shaky bits, and attached it using many mannnnnnnny small curved bits of foam tape to seal the entire circle. then i added all the adorable stickers. (most of which are backed with dark blue cardstock and cut out, to make them both sturdier and more dimensional) a few rhinestones and touches of glitter glue later, i was done.

♥ happy birthday, little dude! ♥

it's friday:

told ya!* :)

♥

that being the case, this seems like an excellent time for a sketch. laura's 48, perhaps?:

and then obviously i should show my interpretation:

(patterned paper: my mind's eye, cosmo cricket, scenic route + some love elsie fabric paper ripped off its paper backing & stitched to the page; vintage: sheet music and chinese text paper; cardstock sticker: sassafras; rub-ons: maya road, fancy pants; ink: versamark black; pen: copic outliner; glass bauble: hero arts; other: dymo label, sewing machine; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

i really loved stef's lovely day "thrinchie" earlier this week, and last night when i was cleaning up scraps i realized this off-cut of folded white cardstock would make a really cute little square card...and i think i was right about that! mine is about 4.25" square, and again...it's quite a loosey-goosey version of the sketch... (honestly, i do set out to follow them absolutely faithfully--but then somehow, sort of midway through, my laureniness kicks in, and things take a turn for the weird!) i do like it, though, particularly since amost the entire thing is made of leftovers and extra bits i'd cut out for other projects. using up scraps...gotta love that, right?! :)

*for the benefit of folk who were not raised on american television: the photo is of the actor jack webb who starred as sergeant joe friday in the police show "dragnet" in the 1950's. the show, which still ran throughout my childhood in re-runs, was sort of the "CSI" of its day, in that it showed a daringly realistic (though generally not violent, and emphatically NOT glamorous) version of rank and file police detectives going about their daily routine.

tomorrow's post tonight!

eta friday morning: OOOH! heidi and diana at sketchy thursdays picked this card as one of their faves!!! thanks, you guys, i'm honored to be in the same group as the other picks--they are AWESOME! ♥

being the super-organized type of gal that i am (HA!) i was all set to blog this baby tomorrow morning, when suddenly it occured to me that it's *WEDNESDAY* and the deadline for the current (& quite fabulous) sketchy thursday sketch is 10pm tonight. and seeing as how i am quite proud of my (admittedly VERY loosey-goosey) interpretation, i wanted to sneak this baby in. so let's go!

here's the sketch:

and here's the card:

(digital bits: fancy frame by jesse edwards, designer digitals...used as clipping mask on cherry sugar sunshine patterned paper by girl friday, digichick; additional patterned paper: my drama queen by vinnie pearce, pixel canvas; font: orial; scrappy bits: patterned paper: sei, basic grey; tag: daisy d's; chipboard frame: k&co; chipboard word: ek success; frame stamp: POD (stamped w/colorbox ink & psx clear embossed); dimensional cupcake sticker: mambi; rub-on: basic grey; velvet trim: american crafts; ribbon, daisy trim, flowers & gems: michaels; pearls: kaiser; pins: making memories, joanns; butterfly punch: martha stewart; inks: colorbox, staz-on; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, hot glue)

i have been a VERY big fan of iris babao uy ever since she was a memory makers' master a couple of years ago, and i recently re-found her blog. i love the way she uses an abundance of color and product...and yet manages to incorporate some nice blank "white space" into all of her projects. i was going for that sort of balance here, and i think i got pretty close. ok, ideally, i might've left a *little* more white showing...but baby steps, baby steps! :)

tyggereye stamp ATC collection (part 2)

and now without further ado here are the rest of the ATC's i made for gina using her beautiful tyggereye art stamps!

tweet robin

(pink paislee, dcwv & basic grey patterned papers; notebook paper; maya road chipboard branch stamped with hero arts woodgrain; making memories & maya road rub-ons; making memories flowers & mambi gems (recolored w/glimmer mist & copics, respectively); prima & paper source leaves; ranger distress & staz-on inks; prismacolor pencil; uhu gluestick & 3m foam tape)

tickled pink flamingo

(vintage text paper; doodlebug, making memories, christina cole, scrapbook wizard & imagination project patterned papers; doodlebug, american crafts & 7 gypsies rub-ons; staz-on ink; glimmer mist; uhu gluestick & 3m foam tape)

sandpiper

(illustration & poem from an old children's book; vintage sewing pattern; basic grey patterned paper; ranger distress inks; prismacolor pencils; uhu gluestick & 3m foam tape)

all you need is love (potion)

(vintage russian text paper; making memories & basic grey patterned paper scraps; fancy pants & american crafts rub-ons; ranger & colorbox inks; dymo labels; tiny nail gems; diamond glaze; copic markers; uhu gluestick; 3m foam tape)

and there you have it, another ATC swap completed! hey g...whaddaya wanna do next time??! :)

tyggereye stamp ATC collection (part 1)

ok, so last week i showed you the gorgeous and amazing wizard of oz themed ATC's gina made for our swap. well, now you get to see what i sent her! (it's not nearly as cool as those though, i will warn you right now!)

my idea was to make an ATC for gina for each one of her fabulous hand-carved tyggereye art stamps that i own. and here they are now (so far, anyway...these things are SUPER-addictive...i know there will be more!!!) :

and here are the cards:

butterfly

(vintage illustration, sheet music, sewing pattern & text paper; fancy pants & polar bear press rub-ons; ranger distress ink; glimmer mist; uhu gluestick; 3m foam tape; mambi gem)

dandelion

(or in this case dande-LAUREN!) :)

(chinese text paper; my mind's eye border stickers; ranger distress ink & stickles; sprayed watercolor; memories complete rub-on; dymo labels; copic outliner; uhu gluestick; 3m foam tape)

rockstar monsta

(vintage sheet music; love elsie, basic grey & making memories patterned paper; ki lace cardstock; american crafts rub-ons; mambi gem star; copic outliner; staz-on ink; uhu gluestick; 3m foam tape)

monsta maniac

(gretchen thomas digipaper printed on kodak photopaper; basic grey & creative imaginations patterned paper; all my memories rub-on; dymo labels; copic outliner; uhu gluestick; 3m foam tape)

and just to keep this from becoming a massively picture heavy, scroll-forever post, i will do the other half--which contains my two favorite cards of the group--tomorrow! :)

heart the art: week 12 (lucky)

this week's HEART the ART prompt is "lucky"...and gina gave us the additional challenge of incorporating a proverb or quote into our page. i was actually looking for something a bit irish to use on this one, but as often happens to me during quote searches, i came across something the buddha said which completely captured my imagination, so i decided to go with it!

(chinese text paper & vintage sheet music; buddha image from a magazine; alphabet stickers: heidi grace; rubber stamps: penguin pants, all night media, cherry pie, inkadinkado; distress inks & perfect pearls: ranger; watercolor paint: grumbacher; font: mom's typewriter; adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

having watched tim holtz's video about using perfect pearls with distress inks several times this week (thanks, mari!) i was determined to try out the technique for myself, and this seemed like a great opportunity. of course, on a 4x6" page which incorporates a decent sized image and journaling, you don't actually *SEE* a lot of it, but trust me, there's some inky, stampy, irridescent goodness goin' on in the background of which i am inordinately proud! next time i shall attempt to get similar results and NOT COVER THEM UP! (stay tuned!) :)

hey, mari! hey, leah!!

i saw this amazing "bandana card" on marisol's blog...it features a verrrrrry cool inked background with black stamping and white highlights...and if you're anything like me it'll make you go, "HOLY MOLY, how did she DO THAT??!" and the great thing about mari is, when you ask her, she'll tell ya! (& then if you're a bit dim like i am, she will patiently explain it a second time, with photo links, and maybe a video!) :) armed with my newfound knowledge and two of my favorite stamps, i was determined to give it a go!

in the meantime, leah pointed out that i've *NEVER* done one of her challenges at design dollies! (OOF! how did i manage THAT??! sorry, missus!) so i decided to take up the current color challenge to use orange, red and one neutral!

and here's my card!

(patterned paper: rouge de garance, the paper co, crafty secrets + homemade!!!; glossy black cardstock: ranger; spray ink: glimmer mist, smoosh spritz; ink pads: colorbox, staz-on; embossing powder: psx; stamps: hero arts, autumn leaves; white pen: inkssentials; gems: prima; embossing folder: cuttlebug; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

ok, admittedly, it's not a patch on mari's...but i am quite proud of myself! my background is spray inked rather than blended timmishly, because that was what i had in the appropriate colors. since i had a bit more "blank space" in my background, i also went in lightly with a pattern stamp and a bit of red ink to spice it up a bit. and finally, at the very end, i went back and made a second butterfly to mount atop the first with foam tape... (you cannot really tell in the pic, but irl it makes a huge difference!) ...because, yes, i admit it...i am allergic to flat cards!

midway through the design process, when it turned out that my "bandana" panel was going to be rectangular, i realized i could use kazan's sketch #48 to streamline my assembly process...so i did!

and there you have it, the card with multiple inspirations that is surely exponentially cooler in consequence!

♥ thanks, you guys!!! ♥

not much to show...

...for the last couple of days, but here's a little digi-collage i made:

i do hope your week has been pretty good, but if not take a little bit of extra weekend outta petty cash!

~♥♥♥♥♥~

(paper: blendables #1 (re-colored), katie pertiet, designer digitals; brushes: floral art #2 & asian script #1, anna aspnes, designer digitals; french ooh la la tickets & inked edges tool kit, rhonna farrer, house of 3; software: broderbund printshop)

heart the art: week 11 (fearless)

this might be my favorite HEART the ART page yet! ok, i think i've already said that a few times, eh? :) and truthfully, i love them all, because gina has thought up the best prompts and the pages themselves are soooooo much fun to make!

this time our word was FEARLESS:

immediately i knew i wanted to use a bit of bruce mau's incomplete manifesto for growth. (yeah, i'm still thinking & talking about that!) specifically, point #4, where he talks about *FAILURE* being a positive thing, a sign of being creatively "out there" and continuing to seek & explore NEW ideas rather than--as is often quite tempting--re-creating the same "safe" things that have worked in the past.

how perfect is it that the making of this page is an absolutely IDEAL illustration of what i wanted it to say? because my brilliant first idea of how to do the journaling...which was to use a cool-shaped tag to mask off a bit of glimmer-misted notebook paper...did not work AT ALL! in fact, it was a bit of a mess, see?

but before i even had time to be disappointed about that, i noticed that the tag itself, which i'd set aside after using as a mask, was now the most brilliantly blended combination of colors imaginable! i had to abbreviate the original quote a bit, but i fit in the gist of it and set about with the embellishing & sticking on all those letter stickers. et VOILA!

the only problem with being "caught up" on these (a fun & novel feeling to me i assure you!) is that now i have to wait until saturday for the next one! hey g...can i get a hint??!?! ♥

(materials: patterned paper: prima & a bit of hindi newspaper; letter stickers: creative imaginations; journaling tag: k&co; butterfly: my mind's eye; rub-ons: basic grey & autumn leaves; bling: recollections; pins: joann; spray ink: glimmer mist; ink pads: versamark & colorbox; pens: uniball & micron; stickles: ranger; adhesives: 3m foam tape & tombow monorunner; finished size: 4x6")

more happy (& instructive!) mail

ok, i think i have probably mentioned a time or two...or three...or a million...how much i ♥LOVE♥ to receive beautiful handmade cards from my amazing papercrafting friends, and this positively gorgeous card, from my lovely friend mari, was no exception, particularly since it came as a complete surprise!

do you see all of that texture? and shine? do you see the amazing shimmery rainbow background? and the fabulous copper mesh over top?! don't you wish i could take a decent photo so you could REALLY see how cool it is...and then try to figure out how she did it??! yeah. me too. (sorry, m--i haven't done ya justice!) luckily there's a better image--and complete details--in this post on mari's blog, m'ija stamps!

speaking of "how she did it"...mari, who knows A LOT of very tricky and impressive techniques, is incredibly generous about sharing her knowledge, from answering my (many & often quite silly) questions, to sharing her card "recipes", to making lists of videos and websites i might like. and as if that wasn't enough, in the package with this card, she sent a bunch of her favorite tim holtz stuff for me to try out: grunge board, perfect pearls, fantasy film, ink-blending foam and more! so now i can try out some of the stuff i'm learning before i make an investment in new supplies! can you imagine a cooler or more inspiring gift to arrive as a surprise on a random monday?!

i can't wait to dig in and get started experimenting with my goodies, but first i send an extra big, and extra hearty

♥ THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! ♥

to my very talented and thoughtful friend!!!

more ATC's?!

yep. what can i say, i was longing to make some anyway, and then the very sweet and thoughtful tanis sent me that cool pack of vintage goodness from the paper flea market, and it seemed like the perfect "thank you" to make her a little something! or in this case, *three* little somethings:

for some reason, i am loving to make these three at a time, like a little triptyc! i used a lot of orange and brown since those are tanis' favorite colors. also it fit perfectly with some vintage images i already had in my stash. also...ok...there really isn't a second "also"...that's just sort of how these came out! :) again, i've glued bits of sewing pattern all over the place, letting it bunch up a bit for some texture. i filled in the backgrounds with a bit of stamping, a lot of inking and a few miscellaneous rub-ons. i was...and am...pretty happy with them, and i hope miss tanis will enjoy receiving them with my renewed ♥THANKS♥!

********************

(materials: lots of "vintage bits" from the paper fleamarket and also from my own stash: sewing pattern, trading stamps, text paper, coca-cola label, playing card, bridge tally, ticket, etc; stamps: stampin' up, sassafras, cherry pie, hero arts; rub-ons: sei, basic grey, making memories; inks: staz-on, ranger, colorbox; chip & paper stickers: sassafras)

a question we all ask ourselves, sooner or later:

ok, possibly not *all* of us.

possibly just dogs...

...whose shadows are unaccountably wearin' bow ties.

(yes darlings, it's DEFINITELY monday! try not to think about it, it'll be over quite soon.)

♥♥♥

heart the art: week 10 (keep going)

hooray for saturday! hooray for HEART the ART! here is my page for last week, week #10, the prompt was KEEP GOING. as soon as i read it, i thought of this illustration from a vintage red riding hood illustration i cut out a while ago. it just kind of sums up the feeling you get sometimes, doesn't it? (well, i guess it does to me, lol!)

(materials: page from a vintage children's book; making memories alphabet stamps; ranger & colorbox inks; bam pop thought bubble; manual typewriter; sewing machine)

speaking of gina, our lovely HEART the ART hostess, she and i decided to have another ATC swap! ordinarily i would show you both halves at the same time, but i have received gina's already and mine aren't even started yet...plus these are too good...and i can't wait! first here is the cool card i got, and a fabulous bookmark gina made for the recent caardvarks' sticker challenge. isn't it cool?

but of course the real show is the cards themselves. we didn't have a theme, we're going freestyle this time. gina painted these amazing wizard of oz cards:

how much do you LOVE THESE??! well, not as much as i do! and they're *MINE*!!! :) seriously, these have instantly gone to the top of my "prized possessions" list: i'm getting them framed so they can hang right over my desk; i'll show you when they're done. and i'll show you my half of the swap...when they're done! in the meantime i say another giant

THANK YOU!

to the artiste, and highly recommend you check out her blog if you haven't done so already, you are in for a real treat!

did she say, "victorian HYBRID card??!"

yes i did. but it's actually even better than that, it's a victorian hybrid *sketch* card! here's the sketch (laura's #47 from 2S4Y):

and here's the card:

i mostly used the gorgeous french ooh la la paper kit i got during the house of 3 birthday sale a couple of weeks ago. i laid everything out in printshop, played with it, sized it, and then printed the individual bits on plain white cardstock and glossy photo paper so i could reassemble them. i added in a few "real life" enhancements, like lace and ribbon flower trim along the edge, real jet beads on the birdcage, and handstitched swirls.

of course you know i love to use foam tape for dimension--the artisan label is on two layers, the birdcage on a third; then finally, i finished off with a bit of machine stitching around the panels for extra texture! i am pretty pleased with this one, actually. and of course the best part about digi is, you can use the same ingredients as many times as you want, in as many different ways as you can come up with, and you only need to print the projects you like! niiiiiice. :)

(materials, digi: french ooh la la 12x12 kit (re-sized & cropped), swirl cluster brushes (re-colored) & birdcage brushes, rhonna farrer, house of 3; graphed paper pack #2 (re-colored), katie pertiet, designer digitals; software: broderbund printshop; materials, scrappy: patterned paper: pink paislee; white cardstock: staples; glossy photo paper: kodak; lace & ribbon trim: michaels; rub-on: basic grey; embroidery floss: dmc; tiny nail gems from the lovely terrie bailey; black glitter glue: ranger; adhesives: diamond glaze, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine.)

disturbing, yet hilarious

isn't it amazing how very, verrrrry MANY things are both?!

happy wednesday, darlings!
♥♥♥

i made a fortune last night!

two, actually. so of course i had to make fortune cookies in which to put them. see?

stef sent me a link to this tutorial a couple of weeks ago, and i thought it was AWESOME! (also the blogger, lady harvatine, is hilarious!) it was not particularly difficult, either, even for someone with limited sewing skills. (which is pretty much ME in a nutshell, eh?!!) i did make a very small variation to the instructions which saves two steps, that i'll put down at the end of this post; along with instructions to make this 99% a no-sew project. (so if you have no interest in ever making one of these, just skip that bit, k?)

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! could these *BE* any cuter??!" well, yes, actually. yes, they could:

as soon as i saw the tutorial i thought of the cute "chinese takeaway" containers they sell at michaels, and how adorable it would be to put some shredded paper "noodles" in one to pad the cookies, which now look a bit more like a gift, don't they? (this pair were made for my in-laws' wedding anniversary, so the "fortunes" are love-based, and i used coordinating fabrics.) oriental trading sell smaller boxes made of semi-sheer plastic which are the perfect size for ONE cookie padded with a few "noodles"!

of course i had to decorate the outside of the box a little bit, too...hey...it's what i *DO*!!! :)

♥♥♥♥♥

the slight variation to the instructions which saves two steps...and incidentally makes it easier for newbies to stitch a neat circle: instead of tracing and cutting out the 4.5" circles, just lightly trace a 4" circle onto your 5" square of felt with a pencil, pin it to your 5" square of cotton and machine stitch all the way around the circle ON THE LINE. then cut out the circles close to the stitching w/pinking shears as directed, and keep going from there!

how to make this a 99% no-sew project with no sewing machine necessary: use fusible web (aka "wonder-under" available at most craft stores) to attach the felt and cotton fabric layers before tracing and cutting your circles; then sew the center seam by hand. woohoo! you've got COOKIES!!! :)

heart the art: week 9 (waffle)

this is probably the fastest heart the art page i've ever made...which explains why it's taken me over a week to post it, right?! :) no but seriously, when i read that last week's prompt was WAFFLE i knew right away that i wanted a photo of a vintage toaster and an eggo! luckily a google image search made both of these easy to find and then all i had to do was format them for my 4x6 page and print 'em out.

of course, me being me, i wanted to journal ON THE WAFFLE...and have it be removable from the toaster. so i did:

my answer was super easy to write: i've always had a hard time making choices. i don't mean the big decisions...i can usually handle those. no, generally speaking, the smaller the problem, the longer i will waffle!

and thus another page gets added to my book! the new prompt is up, as well...and gina has been ON FIRE the last few weeks: carving stamps, making digi-layouts, and rockin' the art journal in a big way...why not head over to tyggereye art and check it out?! (you can thank me later!)

(materials: photos from internet printed on kodak premium glossy paper; toaster icon formatted in broderbund printshop using chunker and cry kitty fonts; love elsie fabric paper; notebook paper; ranger distress ink; uniball signo pen)

want to ATC what i made?

you may remember a little while ago, the darling stef sent me this awesome set of clear stamps:

which, at the time, i said i thought would be *perfect* for ATC's...which i was longing to make. well, i was right...they ARE perfect for making ATC's! see?!

(stamps: crafty secrets; bling: michaels, k&co, heidi swapp; sprayed inks: glimmer mist, smoosh spritz & grumbacher watercolor paint; ink pads: colorbox, ranger, staz-on; rub-ons: basic grey; tiny metal frame: k&co (i outright stole this idea--framing a teeny embellishment--from gina); flowers: prima; brad: making memories; transparency: staples; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow mono runner, mini gluedots; everything else is vintage goodies from my stash: sheet music, text paper, bits of paper & fabric lace, random images, postage stamps, tickets, and my new favorite thing: bits of vintage sewing pattern (which came wrapped around my gauche alchemy goodies!) glued slightly wonkily over some collage bits and under others--i ♥LOVE♥ that the tissue paper is sheer enough to see through and yet it gives INSTANT texture and patina to whatever is underneath it!)

so of course i had to send these babies out to the lovely lady in question, along with a very big

♥♥♥ THANK YOU ♥♥♥

for the inspiration!!!

if i knew you were coming i'd've *SEWED* a cake!

like this one!

i made it for missus trash's birthday. it seemed like the thing to do, what with her being such a smashing seamstress, quilter, and fabric artist...and my having just learned to sew a bit!

i got this FAB pattern from the dollifever etsy shop. it was actually meant to be made of felt, and top-stitched together, but my new-found machine-stitching skills were burning a hole in my pocket, so i decided to attempt to convert the pattern. i added a 5/8" seam allowance to each pattern piece...and somewhat to my surprise...it actually worked!!! i used ribbon for my piping instead of felt, and added pre-made paper flowers on top, et VOILA!

ok, it is just a leeeeeeeeetle bit wonky. (you'll notice there is no photo taken from the front of the cake, staring down the point...this is not an accidental omission!) i definitely need to be bolder when it comes to making the little nips in the fabric where you need to turn the seam quite abruptly. also, i have no idea how to perfectly press tiny sewn things with my big honkin' iron! but all in all, as a first solo project, i am not at all unhappy with my effort, and i was definitely pleased & proud to present it to my lovely friend!

making this card involved scrubbing an entire wall of my kitchen

eta sunday morning: WOW!!! i am honored and completely flabbergasted to be in the FAB FIVE!!! having said that, i feel like this card came out of the blue & had hardly anything to do with me...i am just proud to have gotten it out of my head and onto paper! thank you ever so much kazan & 2S4Y!!! ♥♥♥ (ps: you guys--you HAVE TO go & see the rest of the cards...seriously...WOW!)


the one just over the sink...in order to remove the paint splatter...from the (unsuccessful) watercolor background essperiment. it was a bit non-triumphant, actually, and i was somewhat disheartened. but then i remembered the FLOWERS!

i'd seen them earlier in the day, in this post on iris babao uy's blog. she was showing off the new prima "innoscence" flowers (yes, it is spelled that way; no i don't know why) which come only in white so they can be sprayed, inked, painted, misted or...whatever...to get a custom look. and i said to myself, "hey lauren! you could probably dip/splatter/smear watercolor paint onto any light colored fabric or paper flowers!" and seeing as how my sink was already full of smears, blobs and puddles of watercolor paint in various shades of blue, it seemed like the perfect time to test this hypothesis.

so i did.

in retrospect i realize it would've been a good idea to photo the flowers on their own after painting, but as soon as i saw them, i mentally imagined them as the stars of a card made based upon kazan's sketch 47 from 2S4Y:

and i mean, i suddenly saw the whole entire card, like a snapshot: the flowers, wonkily concentric circles of bling & stitching, the corrugated cardboard, the swirls of wire. only the chinese newspaper, the leafy ribbon and...believe it or not...the bird (!) were not present in my "vision". other than that, i promise this was 95% complete when i saw it in my head:

(patterned paper: my mind's eye & current + bits of chinese newspaper, corrugated cardboard & notebook paper; kraft cardstock: bazzill; bling circles (re-colored w/copics): heidi swapp; bird clipart: anahata katkin; flowers: vintage silver and tiny purple flowers from michaels, both painted with various shades of blue watercolor paint. copper wire & millefiori beads from a beading store; ribbon: may arts; ink: ranger; rub-ons: american crafts; adhesives: hot glue, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape, mini gluedots, sewing machine)

all i had to do was make the thing, which i did almost feverishly, in case the idea should evaporate completely whilst i worked. luckily it didn't, and i was able to pull all of the ingredients together quite quickly. by far the longest step was figuring out--after i had everything arranged--how to attach all the various bits and in what order.

the background papers & chinese text are machine stitched. the copper wire is wrapped around the corrugated cardboard, twisted around itself, and then both are attached to the card with hot glue in the center, and staples out at each end. the circle is reinforced with a bit of thin chipboard, hot glued onto the corrugated cardboard, and propped with two layers of foam tape under the bit that overhangs the background. the flowers, beads, and leaves are tacked at strategic intervals with mini gluedots, and anchored more securely with dabs of hot glue anywhere i was able to hide it.

at the very end i added a rub-on sentiment and a little swirl...and called it a night! yep. totally worth cleanin' that wall. :)