upon reflection...

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "mirror, mirror" and we want to see something reflective on your card. i used metallic chipboard letters and this cool silver mylar deco tape. plus a little bling for good measure!

color burst pigment powders by ken oliver; watercolor paper: strathmore; bling: recollections; silver chipboard letters: mambi; white foam thickers: american crafts; reflective silver mylar deco tape of unknown origin (dear tape manufacturers, do you have any idea HOW MANY repeat customers you're losing by not putting your brand name on the inner cardboard roll thingie that holds your tape? seriously, how can we thank you for making something awesome if we don't know who you are??!) ink: stewart superior; pen: faber castell pitt; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

the lovely miss stephanie was here for a few days and we did some serious eating (of shake shack burgers, amongst other treats!) some serious shopping (at the very awesome paper anthology!) and some very seriously UN-serious playing around with art supplies at all hours of the day and night. so basically, it was like a slumber party for crafty grown-ups; or you could call it ♥heaven♥!

we're both a bit hooked on ken oliver's color burst-- it's basically powdered watercolor pigment that produces the most vivid colors ever, as my background papers and festive star will attest! for the right-hand side, i used 3 or 4 different shades through a stencil; for the left-hand side i used a couple of shades of blue and green kind of randomly on watercolor paper; the star is made from a scrap of dictionary paper i used to blot a totally different essperiment involving blue and purple, so it's considerably more muted. there doesn't seem to be a *bad* way to go with these, though. 

another great use for a sketchbook is writing down all the ideas you have when there's no time to be crafty. then when there *IS* time you'll remember all the stuff you wanted to try! (for this lettering i used the colorburst powders exactly like regular watercolors and they worked brilliantly in every sense of that word!)

i didn't wind up with many *finished* items apart from the mirror, mirror card, but then i consider these "art camp" experiences to be a time to have fun and just play around with new supplies rather aimlessly. afterall, that's the only way to learn!

just a few of my essperiments from this weekend; as you can see pigment powders, stencils, modelling and embossing pastes, stamps and vintage paper all played a prominent part. (so did sushi, burgers, and the best smoked pork ribs i've ever had in my life, but sadly none of those lasted long enough for me to photograph them, lol!)

something i learned a long time ago is that miss leslie is awesome at making inspiring sketches that i will enjoy, and her CSSC#8 is no exception:

miss leslie is also rather good at making cards... as are the rest of the lovely SOS ladies... won't you stop by and say HOWDY to them today?! ♥♥♥