it's going to snow...AGAIN...

tonight. and whereas our part of new jersey has got off comparatively lightly in the last two rounds, it seems like this time we're in for it. so today i feel a bit like this:

anybody in the southern hemisphere in the mood for a house swap, effective immediately? anybody??

heart the art week #5: THRIVE

this is one of the most fun things i have EVER made...and one of the most unexpected. at no point during this process did i really have a clear picture of what i was actually going to end up with. usually that would bug me, but i am determined to embrace the "process is more important than results" school of art journaling, and to that end i tried out an idea that my art journal idol dina wakley apparently teaches in her classes: try to use TWENTY layers on a page. and i did it! well, sort of. ok, first lemme show you the page, it's for the year-long weekly challenge my *other* art journal idol, gina, is hosting on her blog tyggereye art.

(materials: 4x6" piece of thin chipboard; illustration from a vintage book; scraps of hambly transparency, corrugated cardboard, japanese text paper & vintage sheet music; plain muslin sprayed with glimmer mist, maya mist & smoosh spritz; leaf ribbon by may arts; pink glitter glue, silk flowers & leaves from michaels; brenda walton alphabet stamps; stampin' up distressed edge stamp; silver glitter thickers; vintage button; dmc embroidery floss; uniball & micron pigma pens; inks by ranger, colorbox & staz-on; watercolor & acrylic paints; gesso; masking tape, staples, sewing machine & gluedots)

ok, so now onto the twenty layers: i think it depends on how we calculate them. it was smooth sailing at the beginning: cardboard base, gesso, watercolor, stamping, an illustration from a vintage book, the masking tape i used to cover the bit of illustration which didn't fit my theme, the distress inks which camoflauged the tape, the ribbon "vines" i've sewed over bits of the illustration, and so forth.

towards the middle it gets fuzzier: i made flowers out of a piece of fabric on which i had spray-inked & stamped...is that 1 layer or 3?? i figure all the little bits of paper that highlight my journaling count fair & square as a layer each, but how about the staples? and what of the *ONE* cool vintage heart-shaped button i attached at the end? it adds loads of impact, imo--but does it constitute a layer??

in the end, i don't particularly care whether that aspect of the page was successful or not...and i have a really strong suspicion i'm not meant to. i think the point of the exercise is to push yourself, step outside of your comfort zone, and stop worrying if one last layer is going to "wreck" your page; in which case: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! :)

welcome to *MONSTA*piece theatre

how funny & adorable is that MONSTA?! i fell in love with him (or her?) at christmas time when designer digitals was having discounts every day, he's from a set of digital stamps by jesse edwards... (he has brothers too--or perhaps sisters? it's hard to tell!) ...i digitally paper pieced him and added some birthday greetings in random bursts at various font sizes to participate in prompt #25 at the creative type, which is to incorporate type in your embellishments. (i've incorporated some of my type CORPOREALLY...do i get extra points for that??!)

i also used kazan's sketch #45


but i will forgive you for not believing me, since it is quite clearly round. i was completely inspired by the sketch, however; that's what made me cut out around the funky pointy shape instead of making a plain old rectangular card! i printed the monsta's body & cupcake base on photo paper, the mouth, teeth, eyes & cupcake icing on plain index stock and the background shape (with more bursts of text) on some grungy acid green paper, then cut everything out and popped the different layers on foam tape for added dimension. i'm pretty sure the birthday dude will not receive two of *THESE*!!! ♥


(finished card measures 8.5 x 8". digital materials: monstrous stamps by jesse edwards & pop icon shape by katie pertiet, both from designer digitals; papers: bennett's hammock by roben-marie smith & cherry sugar sunshine by girl friday, both from digichick; city streets by gretchen thomas & notebook paperpack by katie pertiet, both from designer digitals; cupcake dingbat from pea delilah's doodle font; text fonts: cry kitty, saco de pao, broken 15... all from dafont; scrappy materials: cardstock: basic grey, prima, core'dinations & plain white from staples plus staples' glossy photo paper; epoxy sticker: ki memories; pen: zig; ink: versamark; adhesives: tombow mono runner & 3m foam tape)

talk about your happy mail!

the most darling miss stephanie, already a figure of some repute in the field, has surpassed herself this time...see?



exhibit a: a gloriously shimmery pink-n-brown card smothered with bling AND the eiffel tower on it! (inside is a cool stamped message which reads, "let's be satellites! that's like valentines, but more far out!") exhibit b: the most divinely & entirely laureny set of perfectly-ATC-sized stamps i have ever seen in my entire life! (to the point where i actually think the clear art stamp company may be SPYING on me...but if these are the results, it seems churlish to object!*) i'd like to talk some more, but right now i really think i need an ink pad...

♥ (thank you thank you thank you!!!) ♥

*i figure if they come out with a set of daniel-craig-themed stamps in the spring, we'll know FOR SURE! :)

missus trash is *THIRTY*??!

hard to believe, i know, particularly since she certainly doesn't look a day over 25 and 1/2! but she's announced that this week she is celebrating a birthday with a zero at the end, so i guess we're just going to have to believe her!*

there's a bit of a shindig for her saturday night in a certain hilltop town. lovely husband jeff and i unfortunately will not be able to make it in person... (our lear jet's on the blink AGAIN; also, "burn notice" is on) ...so i am posting this lovely digi version of the card i made for her. (there's a real one, as well, but i do not think it will arrive in time.**)



and now all that is left for me to do is to make a little toast in honor of my lovely friend:

♥

happy

HAPPY

happpppeeeeeeeeee

birthday

missus t!

(& i hope you will enjoy your most creative year yet!!!)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

*i mean it's not like she could be FORTY, for pete's sake; or that i would announce it on my blog if she was, obiously. so let's just stick with 30, ok folks? thanks.

**i'm pretty sure of this, actually, since it's currently still sittin' on my desk. one glaring deficiency of the USPS is an utter failure to show up a week before one's friends' birthdays and hector one into finishing promptly so that they can deliver things ON TIME. they should really work on that!!

for those of you interested in digi-details, here are the ingredients from the card: curtain, birds, ticket, hearts, ribbon, pink sparklees: my drama queen kit by vinnie pearce, pixel canvas; background paper, clouds, journaling strips: bennett's hammock kit by roben-marie smith, digichick; fonts: typewriter from 286 & hurricane, dafont; software: broderbund printshop

usually, i am more like the puppeh on the right:

but THIS morning i woke up to discover the hybrid card with a million digi-layers, which i had such a blast making last week, won the neutral palette challenge at the creative type! and the prize is an absolutely luscious color kit from gauche alchemy that made me drool all over m'keyboard. so TODAY...i am very much like the puppeh on the left! :)

many MANY thanks to the fabulous creative type team: you guys, i am loving your site and i'm already thinking about embellishments with text on them for the *new* challenge!!!

~♥♥♥♥♥~

this would've been more impressive *BEFORE* the yarn bus, wouldn't it?

because in comparison, a hand-knitted scarf just isn't nearly as cool, is it?

even if it was made from a cool novelty yarn like trendsetter cha cha, that automatically makes these cool ruffles when you knit it up in stockinette stitch?

so that all you have to do is cast on eight stitches and in perhaps 10 days of intermittent knitting you're at the end of the skein and you've got this fun, ruffly thing that wants to curl in at the edges like stockinette always does...but for once...that makes it look even better!

yeah. it would've been more impressive if you hadn't seen the yarn bus first. that's all i'm sayin'! :)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

ps: i was very excited last night to learn i WON the fabulous ippity stamps at sketchy thursdays! even though it was a random drawing, i was especially proud to have won for this hybrid card that was SO MUCH fun to make! thanks, you guys!