cowboy boot... rhymes with "CUTE"!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "howdy, partner" and the brief is to use something found in the wild west of the united states, such as horses, cowboys/cowgirls, cowboy boots, native americans, buffalo, cacti, tumbleweeds... you get the idea, right? i confess that when i read the description i had a tiny little panic because i was fairrrrrrrrly certain i did not own anything that would even remotely work. i searched my stash pretty carefully anyway, because often there's an item i've forgotten, or even entirely failed to notice because the theme is so far off my radar. but no, not this time. not. one. single. thing. ugh. which, as it turns out, was kind of good, because it meant i had to build something from the ground up --i decided on a cowgirl boot-- and the result is pretty flippin' adorable if i do say so myself. which... apparently... i do, lol! :)

cowgirl boot paper-pieced using a clipart image; vintage sheet music of streets of laredo from an old childrens songbook-- resized and printed on plain white cardstock; patterned paper: prima, my mind's eye, american crafts, crate, frances meyer... plus some small scraps of faux embossed leather saved for reasons i cannot possibly imagine, but i was really glad i had done it, lol; ancient, paleolithic era leather flower: k and co; brads: mme; measuring tape ribbon and star charm: tim holtz; ink:colorbox chalk in dark brown and charcoal; pen: faber castell pitt outliner in XS; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape and gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

here's a totally gratuitous close-up of the boot, because it had a number of fairly small parts i had to cut out and ink and attach; plus machine stitching on the very verrrrrrry edge of those was somewhat tedious, and i've been fighting a cold all weekend. so frankly, i just feel like i need to put a second photo in this post, please excuse me. but i will point out that the thing that really makes paper-piecing work (imo!) is exactly this sort of tiny fiddly detail, which is not particularly --ok, let's be honest, it's not at all fun to do --but i think is worth the effort:

as it turns out, i did wind up having *one* western-themed item, and that was a piece of sheet music for "the streets of laredo" that i found in an old children's music book. i had ruled out its use because at 8x10" it was too big a card background even for me! but then i remembered i could scan and resize it, so i did. i based my proportions around the current layout (#386) from sketch saturday, which illustrates exactly what i looooooooove about sketches, because see that tilty backgound mat? it's pretty much my favorite part of the card, and i would not ever (EVER!) have thought of doing that, not if i lived to be 107 and made cowgirl boot cards every single week. but debra from sketch saturday thought of it, for which she has my admiration and thanks! ♥

speaking of admiration, you can spend plenty of yours on the luscious DT cards at SOS... why not go and do that right now, darlings?!

what to do with leftover colorburst

but first let me essplain: yes, colorburst can be used in its powdered state and you can do many fun and interesting things to get serendipitous "bursts" of color... hence the name. but one of my favorite ways to use it is just to put a small amount of each color into a compartmentalized palette --ideally with a few empty pans between each, so i can mix in the adjoining ones to get more shades-- then wet each color separately and use them exactly like regular watercolor paints. which is how i wind up with leftovers. because once it's wet, you have to use it up. so i do.

another cool thing about it already being wet is that you can get awesome "wet into wet" blendy techniques. on the other hand, you can add the colors one at a time, let them dry, and layer over with another color later. i did a little bit of both on these fish:

but most of the time, the "using up" process is happening at the end of the night when i've already worked on my primary project, so there's a pretty good chance i will not have another GREAT IDEA or the energy to embark on one. so sometimes i just paint lines. does that seem boring? well, maybe, but it's the good kind of boring, imo... the kind that's just repetitive enough to be sort of soothing... which is awesome just before bedtime. plus, just as the majority of drawing is about line control,a big chunk of painting is about brush control and knowing which brush to use when. and lines are great for that. they make nice backgrounds, too:

sometimes i only have a little colorburst left over, or only a few colors. i've been known to paint squares or circles (or wedges or stripes or... whatever) on a big piece of watercolor paper over several evenings, until it's full. it can take a while, but there's no statute of limitations on watercolor, lol. when it's finally finished, sometimes i stencil over the top, or use it as a background. sometimes i just go crazy with a really juicy pen and call it done. :)

speaking of done, i think i am. so i bid you a fond farewell and a happy artsy day, darlings! ♥

gettin' figgy with it! :)

figgy pudding, that is. because we're celebrating the foods of christmas at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight. won't you join us? here's my card:

patterned paper: pebbles, elle's studio, echo park; chocolate brown cardstock: core'dinations; cardstock cookies and popcorn sticker: pebbles; candy cane flair: studio calico; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

you can see i've concentrated on the sweets and treats... two of my favorite things about the holidays! there were several years of my childhood in which we really did string popcorn and cranberries for our tree. i remember that it took aggggggggggggggggges to complete; mostly because we kids (and my dad!) ate most of the popcorn before it could become garland, lol!

i've used miss leslie's awesome crooked stamper sketch challenge #10 for my card's layout, i think you'll agree it's pretty easy to see why!

head on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's card and link up your own fabulous feast-based greeting!

SOS226: light my fire

here in the us, we put the clocks back last saturday night, when daylight savings time ended for 2015; which kind of reminds us that in the northern hemisphere it gets dark quite a bit earlier at this time of year. so we're celebrating ♥LIGHT♥ this week at shopping our stash, which means we want to see some source of light on your project. whether that's the sun, a light bulb, the spotlight, a street lamp, fire place, candles, christmas lights, a menorah; well, you've probably got the picture; or should i say, "you've seen the light"?! ok, no... i definitely shouldn't say that... in fact, i'm sorry it even came up. soooooooo... wanna see my card???

scraps of yellow patterned paper: k and co, pink paislee, doodlebug, crate, glitz, american crafts, studio calico and... nope, i think that's it; watercolor sky made with artist loft paints on strathmore paper; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; chipboard and pleather thickers: american crafts (via miss leslie, ta v much!); deco scissors: michaels; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

yep, i went with the sun. as a light source --and a metaphor, actually-- it's hard to beat. plus, there are so many fun ways to visualize the sun in a cardmaking context. i've used the patterned paper circle + rays more than once, and i'm sure i'll continue to do so, because i always have little scraps laying around and i always love using them up. in this case i've put them atop a watercolored sky and added my sentiment in a few different types of thickers. not exactly reinventing the wheel, but i like how it came out.

something else i like is seeing what all my lovely SOS teamies will do with any given challenge, and i think you'll enjoy that too, so off you go, darlings! ♥♥♥

what to do with leftover stuff

more sketchbook/art journal catch-up for you today. all of these are a bit random, but the thing they have in common is they're what i did with supplies leftover from other things i had worked on that day, or sometimes the past couple of days. this doesn't necessarily produce an awesome finished pieces, but it's interesting as an exercise. and it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more fun than cleaning up, lol!

ok, so leftover gesso: i was at the end of the container, actually, which had got a bit gloppy and it was hard to reach at the very bottom. so i poured the remains onto a paper plate and then just swiped it onto random book pages --with a brush, with an old gift card, with my fingers-- in whatever designs seemed interesting. i have a bunch of these now, that i can grab whenever i need a base. this one wound up underneath my drawing of "autumn leaves" for 365 doodles with johanna fritz:

leftover modelling paste, sewing pattern and aloha lady. oh and some book paper, too: these were all from different days; i tend to let vintage paper offcuts sit in a pile near my work table, so i can grab them when i have extra paint, modelling paste, embossing paste, colorburst... whatever... it seems a shame to waste it, so i'll use whatever stencil or tool is already dirty and just swipe on the leftovers. sometimes the results sit for ages, sometimes they get tossed out, sometimes there's another leftover item the next night that seems like it'd work well. this page got a little bit of all those techniques, lol: 

leftover torn paper, acrylic paint, tinted modelling paste and sequins: another multi-night scenario-- i used the paper scraps to make a background. i put some waaaaaaay-too-bright blue quatrefoils on another night. i put the white hexies on another night. in between there were various stencils with distress inks and some schoolbus yellow acrylic paint that seared my retinas. again, i stress that these pieces are more about process and seeing what will happen after the next layer and the next... but having said that, they sometimes really grow on me!

this one's kind of a hybrid leftover, it's a rejected background and an orphaned mandala: the background was my first attempt at a home for the "aloha" collage i posted a few days ago. it was way too dark, and the flourishes didn't show up much, and the hearts were, ummmmm... UGH... etc, etc. meanwhile the completely unrelated mandala was painted freehand on a scrap of watercolor paper with leftover colorburst watercolors one night. and i liked it but... whaddaya do with HALF a mandala?? so both of these just sat for a while, until i saw this awesome post of francisa nunes' and i thought, "AHA!" so i combined them. and i really like them together much more than either one on its own:

so what do *YOU* do with leftovers? save 'em? toss 'em? keep the ones that seem promising until you run out of space? i'm always interested (you could say NOSY lol!) in other peoples' art-making habits, so i'd love to hear what you do! ♥

what's cute and mythical and BRIGHT PINK??!?

pretty much everything i've drawn in the last week, lol! you may remember the pink narwhal from a couple of weeks ago? well she's got company now, in the form of a unicorn...

 ...and a dragon! ♥♥♥

before you think i've totally lost my mind* i should mention that these last two were a couple of the daily prompts from 365 doodles with johanna fritz. i'm not participating every day, but i love seeing what people post on instagram, and whenever i have a little time at the end of the evening i check out the topic of the day and see if i have an idea that'd work.

i've also been throwing some of these in with kathy racoosin's latest daily marker coloring challenge, even though --as you can plainly see-- that whereas my drawing has improved LOTS this year; my coloring is still only "meh". this third round of the challenge is wrapping up today, actually. but since it's a huuuuuugely popular event, i'm hoping there'll be a fourth time... in january, maybe...?? and that might be THE ONE in which i really practice properly and get a bit better! meanwhile, whether you already love coloring, or are just beginning to learn techniques, i highly recommend kathy's blog and instagram stream!

here's another entry for both challenges; the prompt that day was "a song"... and you can see i do own some other colors:

but for the "necklace" prompt, we're back to pink, lol. this is based on something lovely i saw on etsy (which irl is gold, and thus more sensible to wear but less fun to color!) and my drawing shares a sketchbook page with an idea i wanted to remember about layered hexagons:

so i think that's about it for now, except to say i hope you're having a fabulous saturday, a happy halloween, and maybe some fun art time today! i'll be back soon with a few things that aren't pink, i promise!!! ♥

*lost my mind worse than usual, i mean, obviously; b/c that ship sailed lonnnnnnng ago, as you know, lol! :) ps the "fluffy" reference is from this scene in despicable me, which is completely awesome. and SOOOOOO FLUFFFFFFFY!!! 

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♥!