still sketchy over here

at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ that is; we're happy to have a second week of stephanie's lovely sketch:

and thus a second go at making cards based upon it. like this one, right here:

patterned paper background: craft and you; torn layers: doodlebug glitter paper, oct afternoon, basic grey and pink paislee; tree: kaisercraft, graphic 45 + torn scraps of doily; ink: colorbox; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; xmas tree die: sizzix; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, so admittedly, this is a pretty loose take on the sketch, but i think (hope?) you can still see it. i had to flip the design horizontally to place my layery tree amongst its pre-printed brethren. and i had to compress the swooshes a bit so that my trees would be standing on the snowy "hills" rather than hovering over them. the latter is a safety issue, really... hover trees? very dangerous! :) :) :) i'm happy with how this came out though, and it was quick to make because i had the super-fab sketch to guide me!

be sure to check out the gorgeous reader's gallery and stephanie's brand new sketch card at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

aloha, darlings!

no, alas, i'm not in hawaii, but a couple of weeks ago our sisters with heart in art instagram prompt was "ALOHA" (yes, it was my turn to pick, how did you guess, lol?) so i made a super-fun hawaii-themed collage, with some handpainted letters. this is one of those ideas that i think you'll be seeing again --probably on cards--because those "custom" alphabets* are just soooooooooo much fun to make!

last week we celebrated "THINGS WITH FINS" so obviously i drew half a mermaid! ok, yeah, i actually had a waaaaaaaaay more sensible idea about fish but then i saw this shirt on etsy. for the record, i'm not in love with the finished piece on this one... (i feel like the quote and the illustration are fighting each other for attention; also i colored in the letters with water-based marker before painting the background so OF COURSE everything smeared all over the place) ...but for me the whole point of working in a sketchbook is to practice, to try out ideas, and to look at what i've done and be able to evaluate: what do i like or dislike, what could i do better, what was so much fun i can't wait to do it again, etc; so i'm not having a moan here, just sharing my process! :) one of my collage/art journal heorines, kelly kilmer, recently wrote a great blog post about this very topic that i highly recommend reading.

this week we're all about "FLOURISHES" and no, this time it wasn't me who set the prompt, but you know i'm all over it!!! i started off by doodling the word  --i often begin with a bit of lettering (my drawing "comfort zone") when i'm not sure what i want to do; it seems like if my pen is moving sometimes it'll jump start an idea better than if i'm just sitting there-- and it occurred to me that "flourish" is a verb as well as a noun, so in addition to swirly bits i've got some flowers in there, too.

we'd love for you to join us on any of these prompts; we start a new theme every wednesday, but the old ones never expire, and there's no need to "catch up" or play along every week. just post your work on instagram with the hashtag #sisterswithheartinart and we'll come along to ooooooh and ahhhhhh at your creations! ♥

*i didn't think to take photos as i was working, but the basic process for the "ALOHA" letters is pretty simple: trace your favorite chipboard or plastic alphabet onto watercolor paper... add a pattern and/or paint to each letter... wait for them to dry and cut them out... mount on foam tape over the project of your choice whilst grinning like a loon. :) :) :) 

proud as a... well, let's just say pretty proud, lol

because this week at shopping our stash we'd like you to "go paperless" --by which we mean create a project that uses absolutely no pre-made patterned paper-- and for once i was able to face this task with equanimity thanks to my current obsession with stencils, watercolors and glitter embossing paste. woohoo! :)

peacock painted on strathmore water color paper with artists loft paints; quatrefoil stencil by folk art inked with fossilized amber distress stain + saffron archival ink + wild honey distress ink; flourish stencil by tim holtz filled with champagne glitter embossing paste by viva decor; flowers and blue gems: recollections; white glossy cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots 

i should probably mention that my friend kim ♥LOVES♥ peacocks and has a november birthday. so this isn't the first peacock-themed project you've seen on my blog during autumn, and i have no doubt there'll be more. last year i drew and watercolored a stylized peacock feather that came out pretty well. i also made a peacock mandala that i quite liked. but this year i wanted to try doing the entire article, so to speak. i wasn't sure i could pull it off, so i started early and had a "plan b" in my head. it took me two goes. i got the body and head the first time... but the wing and tail feathers went awry. so i cut out the top half, and tried again. probably my best tip for beginners learning to draw is look at a lot of images. i looked at real peacocks, peacock illustrations, watercolor peacocks, stylized peacocks, standing up peacocks, full-face peacocks, just-the-tail peacocks... ok, well, you get the idea, right? then i tried to take my favorite elements from each of the images i liked but turn it into something that was just mine. i'm pretty happy with the result.

there's lots more inspiration... but absolutely nooooooo patterned paper... at SOS this week. drop in and enjoy it, won't you?

hooray for sketches!!!

and especially hooray for sketches by stephanie, who has outdone herself for this fortnight's ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt, which is to make a card (or more likely cards because it's way too cool to use just once!) using this gorgeous thing right here:

when i was a kid, my dad's "shortcuts" were a notorious (and dreaded, lol) part of any family vacation or road trip. because unlike the traditional shortcut --an alteration in course that is quicker and more direct than one's ordinary route-- in gallagher family lore, shortcut meant an alteration in course that takes waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than expected and ends far, far away from the intended destination. possibly including within it "a stroll" to a service station after running out of gas. ...but i digress... the point of the story is that in my personal history of cardmaking, generally whenever i "know in advance exactly what i'm going to do" for a particular assignment, a similar phenomenon occurs and the outcome is not even close to what i thought it would be. and/or looks like something that might've been pulled out of the recycling bin. after it'd been dumped onto the recycling truck, under some heavier, messier stuff. i mention all of this because for the first time i can remember, that's *NOT* what happened here! in this case, i had an idea, i carried it out, and it looked like i hoped it would... maybe even a little better... how the heck did that happen??! musta been the sketch!!! ♥

patterned paper: craft and you, pion design, marian smith; plus vintage sheet music from my stash adorned with viva decor glitter embossing paste thru a tim holtz flourish stencil; poinsettias: prima (big) and petaloo (little) brad: my mind's eye; shimmery kraft cardstock: bazzill; chalk ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape and gluestick, gluedots, sewing machine

so yeah, i bought some utterly gorgeous new holiday stuff at paper anthology on saturday, which was burning a hole in my creative brain. as soon as i saw the sketch, i thought how cool it'd be to tear the papers into shape and layer them with vintage sheet music... then pop one of the beautiful prima glitter poinsettias on top to act as the focal/circular element. so that's what i did. and it came out pretty awesome if i do say so myself! (which... apparently... i do, lol, sorry that's not very modest is it?!)

i bet you're longing to test drive this thing, as well, so i'll shut up... right after i send you to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's beautiful card; plus be sure to scroll down to the pink christmas wrap-up post and take a bow-- you guys helped us raise over $350 for the breast cancer research foundation! thank you!!! ♥♥♥

coffee tawk :)

this week at shopping our stash it's all about our "caffeine fix" so we'd like to see your best coffee or tea themed projects!

"literary caffeine-ations" stamp set by becca cruger for STAMPlorations; patterned paper: amy tangerine/american crafts; crate paper, recollections + scraps of glossy white cardstock for the lid and faux polaroid; flair + felt dimensional sticker: american crafts; ink: stewart superior india ink; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

i've been really into free-form paper piecing lately, so i built a takeaway coffee cup using a clipart image as a template, some super-fun papers and a really cool (really ollllllllllllld!) dimensional felt element for the center bit. luckily i had the *perfect* stamp set for the sentiment, "literary caffeine-ations" from STAMPlorations designed by my lovely blogging friend becca cruger. check it out:

i used the current (awesome!) retro sketch (#186) though admittedly i've played around with the proportions in a big big way:

the other SOS designers have some pretty fabulous projects to show you as well, darlings... why not hop over and check those out, then come play along, won't you?! ♥

think pink (and christmassy!) ♥

♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ is always one of my favorite fortnights at JINGLE BELLES and the 2015 edition is off to a fabulous start! there's still plenty of time to play along and remember stephanie and are each donating $2 per linked up card to the breast cancer research foundation, so the more you play, the bigger our contribution will be! ♥

here's this week's card:

watercolor paints: artists loft; watercolor paper: strathmore; pink patterned paper: k and co; glitter embossing pastes: viva decor=champagne and copper, bo bunny=blue, tho i've toned them all down slightly with ranger's hickory smoke distress stain for a more vintage patina; stencils: tim holtz=flourishes; the crafter's companion=flowery star; heidi swapp=ogee pattern; white glitter chipboard letters: mambi; white xl pearls: zva creative; white glossy cardstock: paper accents; chalk ink: colorbox; outlining pen: faber-castell pitt in xs; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

i was in the mood to play around with some watercolor paints and glitter embossing paste, so that's what i did, lol! (my process is VERY scientific, as you know!) i have a little collection of cardstock ornament templates that i've either drawn or made from clipart images, i've used three of those here. i traced the shapes in pencil on my watercolor paper (i often work on the back if i know i want to outline later, because it's less textural) then filled in with washes of color. after the panel dried, i added a few shades of glitter embossing paste to give each ornament a bit of sparkle... though i actually toned the colors down slightly and applied them a bit roughly through my stencils, so they'd look like a tiny bit tarnished and worn like the ornaments my own vintage bauble collection.

i found this fantastic sketch at atlantic hearts sketch challenge, and it really inspired me. i flipped it horizontally so the sentiment wouldn't cover too much of my painting:

i hope you'll jump over to JINGLE BELLES to see the already impressive ♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ gallery and link up your own fabulous masterpiece(s)!!! ♥

i can see clearly

happy tuesday y'all and hooray for a new challenge at shopping our stash. this week it's "i can see clearly" and what we'd like to see (clearly, lol) are projects with some sort of transparent element. so you could make a clear card, or construct a window or shaker, or just play around with a few prominent acrylic elements, or... well... whatever else you can think of that meets the brief. i made a clear card, because it's been ages since i've done so.

pink flourish transparency: hambly screen prints, oh how i miss you!; notebook patterned paper: basic grey; tag: amy tangerine/american crafts; florals: prima + petaloo + garage sale sunflower + joann fabrics tiny felt blossom; brads: my mind's eye, doodlebug, we r memory keepers; acrylic heart: heidi swapp; puffy stickers: recollections; tapes: freckled fawn, lora bailora, october afternoon, love my tapes, heidi swapp, recollections; tiny scraps of ribbon from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine

i ♥LOVE♥ clear cards but it's funny, because i can forget all about them for months at a time until someone says, "hey let's make clear cards!". this week's retro sketch (#185) is especially cool, and i thought it'd work really nicely for this since that horizontal strip (mine is composed of various washi and deco tapes) lets you hide your interior sentiment and greeting behind it.

i know it's sometimes hard to tell which bits are where on a clear card, so here's an "action" shot with the front lifted up. and thus you can see (i hope?) that the larger notebook paper panel is inside the card, whereas all of the other decorative bits are outside.

there's loads more inspiration over at SOS this morning, won't you stop in and enjoy some of it right now?