Thank you Sweet Pea Stamps!

I was a lucky winner over at the Wicked Wednesday challenge blog and I received some awesome digi images from Sweet Pea Stamps.  I have a new favorite artist - Sandra Caldwell.  Here is an ATC I created with her 'Americana Beauty'.

Her style is very reminiscent of some of my other favorites and I can't wait to play with the other images I received as well.  It was so hard to choose the ones I liked.  I'm sure I'll be back to pick up some of her goodies (like the Wizard of Oz set!).

Have a great day!

Please Take My Kids to Work...

Feeling a smidge guilty about this ATC but it did strike my weird sense of humor.  When my three kiddos were younger my husband worked at one of those cool start-up companies that had scooters and skateboards to get from place to place in the building.  They also had loaded fridges full of soft drinks and junk food.  It was a big treat for the kids to go into work with him and, quite frankly, in those days I was a stay-at-home mom and sometimes needed a few hours alone to regain my sanity.

There is a monthly swap series over at ATCsForAll with a bizarre/unusual holiday theme. I purposely looked for June 26th because it is my 'baby' girl's (turning 18 next month!) birthday. I thought it would be nice to have a little tribute ATC for her.  (Enter the reason I feel a smidge guilty about choosing this particular holiday.)

I admit, I tried to justify my choice with the thought that taking my children to the workplace could expand their knowledge of the various employment opportunities available to them in the future.  That's nice, isn't it?  And that's true...kinda.  Thankfully, I bequeathed to her, via genes or environmental factors, my odd and snarky sense of humor.  Just in case though, I don't think I'll share this particular bit of my creative genius with her this time.  ;)

I'm entering this in the Wicked Wednesday ribbon challenge (the 'road' is a ribbon.)

Happy arting.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Little Clown ATC

This sad little clown really caught my eye.  I had already created my red  background when I saw him and it seemed a perfect fit for this image.

I stamped the harlequin background with Versamark ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder.  Next came the bingo marker border and the Barn Door Distress stain (the embossing resisted the ink and makes the harlequin pattern stand out).  The outside borders were enhanced with Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress inks.  It still needed a little something after I added clown boy and little red rhinestones seemed to fit the bill.

I'm entering this in the VLVS May inspiration (inspired by the background pattern and colors) and Wicked Wednesdays harlequin challenges.

Thanks for stopping by!

Traveling Art Journal Pages

Previously I've shared some pages I did in other people's journals for a traveling art journal.  I love seeing how differently everyone creates each time a new journal arrives on my doorstep.  They never fail to inspire me.  (Search #igftj3 on Instagram to see some of the amazing art).

I didn't share these pages earlier so here goes...

 

Cindy's Journal

Rita's Journal

Tess' Journal

Sarah's Journal

I'm a little bummed because I forgot to take pictures of some of them. C'est la vie.  My journal returned to me a few days ago.  I'll have to take some pics and share - it's amazing!

Cheers!

Mixed Media Card

I needed to get some ATCs out to friends in distant lands and thought it would be a nice touch to make a card to go with them.  I love Buru.  Not only is he charmingly weird and quirky but he is relatively easy to fussy-cut.

Last year I started an art journal in a reclaimed planner.  I had ripped out some of the pages to make it possible to add bulky stuff and (of course) I saved those ripped out pages.  They started my background on these cards.

Pulling out various colors of acrylic paints, I swiped, dabbed and pressed using various implements (hotel key card, bubble wrap, empty tape roll, and a mystery cardboard circle).  After those dried, I applied gold crackle paste through a stencil.

Next, Buru was stamped onto white cardstock using black dye ink, I cut him out and then glued him onto the card over a strip of washi tape.

I'm going backwards in the SDC challenges this month and adding this to #194.

Easy, breezy cards are ready to go postal.  Hooray!

SDC 195: Arwen's Challenge

This week over at the Stampotique Designers' Challenge blog Arwen has asked us to mix it up by using a human body with an animal head.  Ha ha!  Here goes...

I used Heart Boy with Dog Cube.  Heart Boy has such a sweet face...it made me chuckle to put a grumpy dog head on top of him.

Hope you're having a great weekend. Thanks for peeking in.

It's an ATC Extravaganza!

I believe I may be over-committed right now.  Over the last day or so I've been creating ATCs like a mad woman trying to play catch up with various swaps.  I got very Stampotique-y this morning, too.  :)

First, I went through a mermaid phase.

Title: Neptune's Girl on the Side (for a Stampotique metallic/shiny swap)

Title: My Name Isn't Ariel (for a Stampotique metallic/shiny swap)

Title: The Mermaid (for Stampotique themed swap at AFA)

Then I decided to pull out some other Stampotique faves:

Title: Her Hero (for Stampotique themed swap at AFA)

Title: Before My First Cup (for Stampotique themed swap at AFA)

Title: Who's There? (for Stampotique themed swap at AFA)

Next up is an ATC for a SwapBot ATC village series.  This time it's the blacksmith's shop.

The doors are interactive. 

Hey, there he is!

 I've really enjoyed making the cards for this series.  Here are the other ones I've done so far:

Village Cooper

Village Cobbler

Village Baker

 Another AFA swap.  This batch is for "State Your Landmark"

   

Mixed Media ATC group "Wings" theme:

Almost done!  This was a wings theme for a different group.  It would appear that I have a thing for butterflies...

Yowza.  If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to look at my art.  :)

Inspiration Strikes

It's always a happy surprise to me when my day job (preschool teacher) inspires my artsy activities.  I've had a set of three JAMS (Just Add More Stuff) ATCs sitting on my desk for well over a month.  The backgrounds were really pretty and every time I pulled them out to look at them I ended up stuffing them back into the envelope with a nary a clue as to what to do with them; I was on the verge of sending them on to somebody else to finish.  I almost did just that, but inspiration struck.

Our preschool theme this month is Under the Sea.  I have a healthy stash of scrap papers that I've used to blot up extra paint and bits that have been cut off of larger pieces.  I decided to make collage-y fish to add to the soft blue backgrounds.  The fuzzy blue fiber reminded me of flowing water or bits of seaweed (no, I've never seen blue seaweed but it did indeed remind me of that).  I started going through my scraps when "WHAM-O!" .... jellyfish.  Their gentle, undulating movements are a perfect accompaniment to the soft, blue background.  Sweet!  Here they are:

I hope the recipients like them.  I was the last one on the list so off they go!