not just "old school"......NURSERY SCHOOL!!!

remember those masterpieces we made in kindergarten? with tissue paper and blunt scissors and elmer's glue? well, it turns out they are INFINITELY more fun to make as an adult!!!

of course, i cannot take full credit for this page. i did not make the painting in the middle. no, that's by vince...err...somebody...can't remember his name; he's not bad though, is he? bit deaf in one ear, apparently.

ok, so i cut the pic out of a catalog, and stuck it down in the center of my page. i was going to use markers and ink pads to extend the image out, but while i was thinking about van gogh, i realized how *TEXTURAL* his paintings are and for some reason said kindergarten projects sprung to mind! i took plain white tissue paper and dabbed at it semi-randomly with various chalk and pigment ink pads to get lots of nice shades of each color. then i ripped the colored bits into smaller mosaic-ish-sized pieces, smeared them with gluestick, and stuck them on all scrunched up.

et voila! "wheatfield with cypresses...AND bits of tissue paper" by lauren and vince! :)

yesterday was a bit like this:

don't get me wrong--after a week on my living room floor i am *THRILLED BEYOND MEASURE* to be back at work! but...it was a monday...and i was gone for a week... (just in terms of cleaning issues this is too long) ...and we are in the midst of several transitions...and
...did i mention it was *monday*??!

having said all that, i am undaunted. (mostly) (ok, i am a little daunted...but i'm puttin' a brave face onnit so work with me, ok?!) in fact i have high hopes that my TUESDAY will be more like this:

(& i hope that yours will, also!!!) ♥

a few more art journal pages

as promised...OR...as threatened...depending on your perspective!

(eyes and lips cut from magazines; various sizes of circles cut with ek success punches from a magazine, tin foil, & an envelope from our payroll company; colorbox inks)

this is one of lovely husband jeff's favorites, for some reason...i think it is the GIANT EYES!

(lots of weird pink ephemera from my vast collection including: beads, buttons, game pieces, tiny iron-on patches, fabric & plastic flowers, and a tiny wooden french poodle that i cannot for the life of me imagine whence it came! + letter stickers: sei, lil davis, k&co)

the photo of me with the text on it is the companion piece to my first ever ATC cards made for my first ever swap!!! i don't think i am allowed to show the cards themselves yet... (and in all honesty, i am rather disappointed with how they came out) ...but hopefully it's all right to show my self-portrait thingie. we were asked to included a little info about ourselves. i never know *WHAT* to write for those things: name, rank & serial number? (a bit dull) age, weight & annual salary?? (i could tell ya...but i'd have to kill ya...) so eventually i did what i usually do, which is waffle on a bit irrelevantly, and then format said wafflage into cool fonts so it looks ON PURPOSE! :)

(torn up bits of newspaper glued on randomly; dandelion & fancy leaf stamps a gift from elizabeth wickland (see? i told ya i was gonna learn how to mount them!) provocraft alphabet roller-stamp; ranger ink)

this is one of *MY* favorite pages...it was inspired by the way the shadows of dandelions and queen anne's lace that grow next to our road look when the sun is at just the right angle. you might not think that silhoutted weeds & common old tarmac would look very cool...but on this particular day i found them rather charming and wanted to try to capture the look.

a few art journal pages

it's been almost a month since i have commenced with the full-on art journal...and i confess that at times i've found it kind of hard...especially at first...especially thinking up what to do. (despite a year of 3BT, i am still not what you'd call a "natural journaler"!) ...BUT... i am proud to say that i have actually made a page every single day and refused to re-do or throw *any* away, even if i don't like them. because LIKING THEM isn't really the point. the point is to make something every day that is just for me. some days i record a feeling, or an event, or something that somebody said that i want to remember. some days i try out an idea or technique or some new product. some days i use up all the miscellaneous stuff that is on my worktable, rather than clean it up! but every day i do SOMETHING. wanna see a few pages?

(magazine ad, dymo labeler, zigwriter pen)

a page about my newly highlighted hair

(glossy red cardstock: jam paper; rub-ons: making memories & gin-x; other: foam tape, magazine images)

a silly page about a kitteh and a mix-up in the dinner order

(cloud-printed envelope (cut up); heron pic from an old book; dymo labeler; colorbox inks; brenda walton alphas & provocraft roller stamp; heidi swapp ghost heart)

a page entitled, "milestones of bad sentence construction"...with good reason...based on something i said unthinkingly to jeff that cracked us both up! this page also showcases my favorite new activity: randomly cutting, inking and pasting lots and lots of little pieces of paper on top of each other to form a background. (i highly recommend this for its theraputic properties...truly, it's the most soothing thing in the world!)

a few more pages tomorrow, perhaps, if i have time to photo them?!

makers of teeny tiny art: I SALUTE YOU!!!

i have been fascinated by inchies for awhile...but you know ME...i don't really work small...so i couldn't imagine that i'd ever get into *making* them. but then, a while ago, i saw this card that my lovely blogging friend ruby made. and i checked out this link she posted to art junk girl's fabulous 1000 squares project (so called b/c...YEAH...she made *1000* distinct and different inchies last year!!!!!) more recently, i saw this card on my friend and fellow CAARDVARK jen's blog, and it reminded me about the others and i thought, "ok fine. i gotta TRY this. if only to prove i can't do it!" :) but much to my surprise...it turned out i COULD do it!!! of course, it took me a while (& you know i'm never fast at the best of times!) plus, i think i wound up getting out 95% of my supplies, just looking for stuff that went together AND was small enough. but eventually i had a grid of inchies (in a love theme to mark my sister's sixth wedding anniversary) and they looked like this:

(vintage items include text & images from a french language book, old ticket, greeting & playing cards; glossy black cardstock: ranger; clipart: anahata katkin; large chipboard heart: heidi swapp; small chipboard heart: fancy pants; rub-ons: mambi, creative imaginations, provocraft, 7 gypsies, oriental trading co; metal word snap & acrylic flourish: making memories; acrylic letters: joann essentials; other: dymo labeller, colorbox inks, foam tape, stickles, sharpie pen)

it's like they've known me all my life!!! :)

i saw this last week on dawn's blog and LOVED it! (ta v much, your all-pink-girl-ness!!!)

The Recipe For Lauren

3 parts Pizzazz 2 parts Originality 1 part Enchantment Splash of Warmth Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

...of course...they forgot to mention "devastating beauty" ...and... "almost super-natural intelligence" ...but other than that, YEAH! they've *totally* summed me up!!!

*****♥*****

IN OTHER NEWS: many thanks for all of the kind concern and good wishes and nice comments! after several amusing trips to the chiropractor and almost a week laying on my living room floor DA BACK is now much *MUCH* better...in fact, i can basically do all my normal stuff, just a bit more slowly, sorely & carefully. HOWEVER, in the interests of keeping our official "house of dooooooooom" status, jeff has obligingly come down with a sinus infection (fruits of last week's cold from hell) and has been home in bed for the last two days. we're planning to have the house fumigated, fung-shui-ed and exorcised over the weekend and then we're both going back to work on monday, dammit, if only to avoid the vast wasteland which is daytime television!!! :)

music to my...EYES?

uh huh!

it's the brand new CAARDVARKS challenge,

name that tuna !

(yepper, the diabolical pun is mine...could i BE more proud?!)

and this time we've gone all MUSICAL!!! i absolutely *love* this theme...there are sooooooooooo many ways to go with it: male or female, young or old, retro or modern! plus there are loads of terrific products out there... like hambly's shimmery silver-on-black sheet music paper, and a very soft antiqued pink version by ek success, not to mention hot off the press' note-shaped brads (all of which can be seen in my cards, below) ...OR... if you like to get all collagey, old music books and vintage illustrations work rather well when combined with some flowers and other modern accoutrements!

i could see SO MANY cool possibilities that i had to make two cards for this event! the first is a very silly "guy card" for my uncle bruce:

(cardstock: daisy d's, bazzill; patterned paper: hambly, love elsie; tuna illustration downloaded from internet; font: bart; inks: colorbox, bazzill; brads: hot off the press; text reads, "Unsuccessful Game Shows...#307: Name That Tuna"; inside reads, "Best Fishes on Your Birthday!")

the second is a very frilly, very feminine "girl card" for my sister-in-law, barbara:

(vintage sheet music & greeting card from garage sales; patterned paper: ek success, basic grey; flowers: petaloo, prima; grunge board: tim holtz (painted with metallic white acrylic paint & sprayed with pink glimmer mist); chipboard bird: tattered angels; pearls: k&co; other: gluedots, colorbox inks, white generic cardstock; inside of card has the original verse from the vintage birthday card, which reads, "A birthday filled with sunny hours, With music sweet and true, And happiness all round about, Is what I'm wishing you." cool, no?!)

and yes, this is one of those rare occasions in which i not only MADE two cards...i actually really *like* both of them! plus, did i mention the magnificent DT creations, which can be seen here?! oh yeah, and you'll want to check out the work of our guest designers, camilla and christine as well!

of course, my favorite cards for any challenge are always the ones that the CAARDVARKS readers send in...so get busy and link up your melodious creations by midnight on 9-3 for a shot at some rather cool swag from scrapbook express !