SOS217: put a bird on it

occasionally at shopping our stash miss leslie sets a challenge that is soooooooooo up my street that i almost feel like i'm cheating. and this week's "put a bird on it" is definitely one of those times. what can i say? i like birds. i also have a number of family members who like birds too, so it's a pretty easy motif for me to build a card around. such as this one that coincidentally happens to be right here:

vintage sheet music, bird illustration and text from my stash; old pressed chipboard frame from the dollar store, i think... it was bright green so i painted it a bit more neutrally with a little craft paint. weird old flowers and leaves that were either given to me or came in a vase i bought at... you guessed it... yet another garage sale, lol! bling flourishes: recollections; stencils: heidi swapp and stencil girl; distress inks: ranger; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, uhu gluestick, sewing machine

i love photos and paintings of birds. i own quite a few stamps and stencils of birds. i've even been known to draw doodley little birds myself. but my all time favorite kind of bird to put on a card is a vintage illustration. when i'm at book sales and garage sales, i specifically look for the most battered old copies of bird books, just because they contain loads of gorgeous illustrations which are the perfect size for cardmaking, as this little chickadee illustrates pretty well, i think. for this card, i painted up a little pressed chipboard frame i found during the great clearout; threw a couple of shades of distress ink through some leafy stencils, and made a little collage that i framed up on some beautifully patina-ed vintage sheet music. i'm kind of glad that my mother's birthday is a few weeks away, so that i can sit this on my shelf for a bit and admire it, she said modestly! :) :) :)

there's lots more avian goodness from my dt sisters at SOS... won't you treat yourself to a little hop over there? ♥

let's play...

...tic tac toe!!! and not just any tic-tac-toe, let's play ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ tic tac toe and make holiday cards that use three-inna-row from any row (or column, or diagonal) on the official board:

i chose the vertical column in the center. to wit: bling, diecuts, snow. is there anyone who's been on my blog more than once who is surprised that "bling" was my first choice? nobody??! well done, darlings! here's my card:

anna aspnes' snowy map overlay printed on an inkjet transparency; patterned paper: hambly, basic grey; vellum: glitz design; snowflake die: spellbinders; bling: recollections + heidi swapp; brad: american crafts; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; doily from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, yeah, it's BUSY... even for me, which is saying something lol. possibly even too busy, but a pretty good example of what happens when you force yourself to finish something when really, you're too tired. so why didn't i toss it and start over? i confess that when i first started making cards, i tended to get rid of the ones i didn't love. and then at some point i was forced, because of time constraints, to bestow card i reallllllllllly hated and was actually embarrassed by. and it turned out to be the person's favorite thing i'd ever made them! (??!?!?!) which blew my mind. but it just goes to show you that everyone's taste is different. so now my policy is: it's a handmade card... it's got interesting ingredients and unique features... it will brighten someone's day. in this case, i'd add the bonus elements that it fits the "tic tac toe" brief and it's a fair-n-square version of the paper players sketch (challenge #259). so there! :)

stephanie has chosen the top horizontal row (santa, bling, stamping) for her card this week, and the results, as always, are impressive. check it out, darlings! ♥

mixed media flower frenzy? yes, please!

i'm having so much fun with the sisters with heart in art instagram challenge, i can't even tell you how much! this week's prompt is "flowers, florals, botanicals". i did a sort of a funky art journal page, with a biiiiiiiiiiiig honkin' flower on it; but the challenge is open to EVERY type of art, so if you paint, draw, doodle, make cartoons, write poems, do hand-lettering or well... did i mention it's open to every type of art, lol?! and for that matter, you don't have to use the theme as literally as i have. i really thought i was just playing around while deciding what i was going to do and the next thing i knew, i was makin' this:

the center bit with the flower was actually a piece of scrap paper i was using to wipe the ink and modelling paste off while i was making a completely different mixed media thingybob. this one, in fact. i'm not sure if it's done or not. but i like what's there at the moment, so i'll probably leave it for bit and see what i think the next time i look at it. 

 

meanwhile, my favorite part of the BIG flower is the sewing. there's a lot of machine stitching. a lot. sometimes when i sit down at the machine i just get into a groove, and that's what happened here. it's very loose, as you can see. no hand cranking at all and all done in one go without stopping to break the thread. on cards i like the stitching to be pretty neat, but it's fun to just wing it sometimes!

my other favorite part is the circle of silver-flake-encrusted tiny paper flowers in the center. i found a ton of tiny flowers when i was doing my clear-out for the papercrafting garage sale up at paper anthology last weekend.* i thought about getting rid of the lot, but i actually still like them, and it occurred to me that i could be using them a) with a fairly free hand (b/c there are LOTS, ppl!!!) and b) i could be trying them out in less traditional ways. i feel i've covered both sections of that brief with this page; and i'm pretty sure the fine folks at making memories (who made+sold these refined and elegant blossoms) never saw this comin', lol! and thus i shall sign off contentedly for now. ciao, darlings! ♥

*it was awesome, by the way; in all respects! i sold a lot, i bought a few awesome bargains, and i had an absolute blast! if you live within driving distance of kenvil, nj, you should TOTALLY get on the list for the paper anthology newsletter b/c the garage sale is an annual event, and next year you'd know about it early enough to *sell* as well as buy, if you wanted to... just sayin'... :)

splish, splash

this week's challenge at shopping our stash (#216 for those of you scoring at home) is called "splish, splash" and i bet you've already guessed that we'd like to see projects which incorporate wet media: watercolor, gouache, acrylic paint, twinkling h2o's, spray ink... you name it; if it's wet (and messy and awesome!) it qualifies! i used a little bit of everything, lol, because that's the way i roll! :)

wet media: artist loft watercolor paints, reeves gouache, ranger distress inks; pens: frixion colors by pilot, tombow markers and faber-castell pitt permanent black outliners in a few different widths; watercolor paper: strathmore; yellow patterned paper mat: k and co; cerise pink velvet paper mat: doodlebug; gems of various sizes and colors: recollections; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, sewing machine

this is one of those cards that took a while to make, but since it involved doing all the things i enjoy, it didn't actually seem like work, if you know what i mean? generally when i draw mandalas i just give myself a few very faint compass-drawn circles in pencil, then jump in with a pen and wing it. but since this one's pretty big (about 8" square) and it may turn out to be my lovely MIL's birthday card, i did a pretty extensive pencil sketch, and tried to keep it a bit symmetrical:

i wish i would've subsequently thought to photo again, in between the various stages, but alas, by then i was too far "in the zone" to think of it. so i'll just tell you that after the sketch i added color via watercolor paints, gouache and distress inks, some of which i applied dry with a sponge, some i used wet with a water brush. then i outlined almost all of the larger segments with machine stitching that's verrrrrrry hard to see in the main photo, but is somewhat more apparent in the detail shot below. then i outlined the small sements with the smallest nib of faber-castell pitt pen, which is called "extra super fine" and totally lives up to its name! then i added some shading to the colors with the utterly yummy frixion color pens gina got me (which i loooooooove--thanks, g!) and a few tombow markers. last of all i added the gems. a lot of gems. enough gems, in fact, that i can imagine there being people in the world who might think, "that's too many gems"; of course these would not be people i could ever become friends with, so i'm not really very worried about that part. :)

meanwhile, as always, there are some absolutely drool-worthy projects over at SOS... why not drop by for a heapin' helpin' of inspiration? you can thank me later, darlings! ♥

going postal

...but you know... inna GOOD way, lol! we're still celebrating all things "snail mail" at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and we'd love to see your holiday cards that feature all things fab and postal-related! here's what i made this week:

postal patterned paper and journal card: pebbles; other paper: graphic 45, crate; diecut label shape thingie: making memories; presents: k and co; santa hat: jolee's via gina ta v much!; twine: doodlebug; tape: october afternoon; black glossy cardstock: ranger; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, so, i had a totally different idea in mind but then i found the b+w paper with all the postal cancellations on it and my card instantly morphed into something else entirely. i kinda love it when that happens! :) i was inspired by retrosketch #177, though again, i started off with every intention of being very faithful, but in the end, kind of veered into loosey goosey land.* it's a great sketch, though, don't you think?

speaking of greatness, you NEED to head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's card right this second! no, seriously... go, now! (why are you still reading this?) (ok, shutting up.) :) :) :)

*for the record, no, i don't actually live in loosey goosey land, but i spend quite a bit of time there; i'm thinking of acquiring a pied a terre for weekends! :)

citrus + citrus + BARGAINS + tiny houses!

it's wednesday, which means it's time for a brand new instagram challenge from sisters with heart in art. this week's theme is "CITRUS", which you can interpret using any media you'd like, in any format you enjoy, any way you want to. you can be literal or abstract, think of actual fruits or just bright citrus colors, or go off on a tangent that's merely inspired by this idea... like maybe you want to hand-letter the lyrics to rem's "orange crush"? that's totally citrus, baby; go for it! :) we want these to be prompts in the truest sense-- merely a word that gets your art brain moving --what direction it goes and the destination it lands on is 100% up to you!

i've actually done two takes on this in my sketchbook and i'm not in love with either one, but they were fun to play around with, which is the point right? the first one is seriously seriously literal:

yeah. actual citrus fruits, in watercolor. nothing wrong with it, but it didn't make me go, "AHA!" so i decided to try something a little looser:

ok, so, citrus colored circles, this time... sponged in distress ink. getting a bit closer to the idea that was in my head, but still no bells or whistles. will there be a take three? well, let's just say i wouldn't rule it out, lol. the nice thing is that the prompts run for a whole week, so we have till next tuesday night to link up our citrus-y creations. for that matter, you can pretty much jump in any time; so if you suddenly come up with something that relates to last week's prompt, "HOME/HOUSES/BUILDINGS" g'head and post it! i did a fun little watercolor in my new tiny moleskine sketchbook over the weekend:

again with the literal, eh? but it was so much fun! ♥

speaking of fun, i've been making piles of stuff in preparation for the 2nd annual papercrafting garage sale at paper anthology in kenvil, nj. here's a bit of a "work in progress" shot; admittedly, a lot of my stuff is seriously elderly, but it's in good shape and i've priced it to sell!

there will be plenty of other vendors, tho, and many of them will have products from *this* century, so it's definitely worth the trip! the sale is this saturday, from 10am to 6pm, at paper anthology in kenvil nj, and if it's anything like last year's event, there will be bargains galore! so if you're within driving distance of central nj, i highly suggest a little detour to check it out! while you're there, you can meet elisabeth, check out all the goodies in the store itself, and hang out with fun crafty people who love paper as much as you do. how could any of that be less than awesome, eh?! check out the paper anthology website for all the details. hope to see you there... i'll be the tall goofy one who's buying more than she's selling, lol, so be sure to say ♥HELLO♥ darlings!!!

SOS215: layer it on me

i think you'll agree that this week's challenge at shopping our stash has "LAUREN" written all over it; we want to see projects with lots... (and lots; and, if you're me*, there might even be one more "LOTS" in there) ...of layers on them. so there's no time to waste! here's my card:

fish, chart, bits of map and ledger paper are all older or vintage things from my stash; other patterned paper scraps: jillibean, creative imaginations, k and co, doodlebug, sei; foam thickers: american crafts, via miss leslie, ta v much!; washi tape: love my tapes; cardstock: core'dinations; ink: ranger; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

if you've read my blog for a while, you may already know that my brother bill's birthday is in september, that he is a very big fan of fish, and that i often make him a birthday card that says "best fishes" on it. i've done a lot of different versions, ranging from collagey to stampy to hand-drawn to... well, let's just say i've done a lot of different versions. i like to think of this not so much as a sadly overworked joke as a "continuing series", lol!

this time, i've incorporated the layers stipulated by the challenge as torn paper scraps, which i've attached only at the top and sides, so that the curvy inked edges look (theoretically? k, just go with me on this...) a bit like ocean waves. this particular fish came from a somewhat falling-apart copy of a truly glorious mid-1960's national geographic book called "the wondrous world of fishes" which i obtained for the princely sum of 25 cents at a library book sale a few weeks ago. so as it turns out, the fish on the card is actually about a year older than the brother to whom it shall be given. i kinda like the serendipity of that. :)

speaking of serendipity, it just so happens that every member of the SOS design team has made a lovely layery creation that we hope will inspire you to join the fun! off you go, darlings! ♥

*if you're reading this from a location other than central new jersey, there's a pretty good chance you're *not* me, and thus feel free to stick with only one or two "lots" before your intended amount of layers. if, on the other hand, you are me: please stop at wegman's on your way home and pick up coffee... we're almost out. :)