Eat Cake - some watercolor and some mixed media

My last challenge layout for June is for

ScrapAfrica

the challenge was to use aqua, pistachio, pale pink, and pale yellow

I have also been painting a lot with my new Prima

watercolors and had painted the macarons

earlier in the month

but couldn't decide what to do with them

Then a couple of days ago I created the canvas

with gesso and aqua, pink, and green

Then what to do with that

AND THEN

magic 

I began playing off the macarons -

French, Marie Antoinette, frilly, frivolous

(I think people take their artmaking way too seriously -

have fun - it's just paper and paint

and believe me, it really doesn't matter if it's acid free or not -

none of us are creating Rembrandt's

we're just being children again

and isn't that the whole point??)

I painted the shoe

and searched in my stash for 

vintage crystal cuff links and the little rhinestone dog broach

some Prima flowers and a fussy cut chandelier,

some 7gypsies rub-ons,

some hand-dyed ribbons

totally frivolous and fun

hope you like it

ttfn

art comes from the heart

made for the More than words mini challenge

to create a tag with the word "art"

the big canvas corp heart has been covered with

selvage edge labels from fabrics - sewn onto the tag

Prima watercolor labels from some of my brand new paints

alphas painted and/or cut out

the tag itself is a regular shipping tag that I covered with 

the remains of the book cover that I used

for yesterday's mixed media piece.

What a fun fun day I had!

ttfn

the unimaginable

This creation is a bit of a departure from my comfort zone

but wow! did I have fun playing and making it

It was inspired by a challenge on the More than Words blog

to make something with the word "imagine" and 

you had to get messy

WELL .....

I had all kinds of ideas in my head but nothing really jelled

until earlier this week

when I read this incredible quote by Mary Oliver,

"keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

But still I wasn't sure how to make this visual

then yesterday it came to me

and I created this heart full of art supplies

but with some room for the unimaginable.

The background is an old book cover that I gessoed

and painted and scraped and scribbled on 

then I added an old paint brush

and other things that just appealed to me

I stamped the quote and sort of 

played with the visual aspect of the quotation -

i.e. like texting.

Come back tomorrow and see the "art"

tag that I created for the More than Words mini challenge.

ttfn

Even more yellow and ...:

Playing around with the colors for the wordspaintery challenge

yellow and blue

painted the vase and used a photo that I took one evening

in our living room - the shadows were amazing

I used some pieces of the IOD molds that I made from some really old

paper clay (note to self - get new paper clay)

they sort of broke so I thought why not just use the pieces

some paint chips, buttons, a vintage Maya Road flower

all adhered to a recycled book cover that is covered

with tissue paper and beeswax

And while I'm on the subject of yellow

Prima June BAP - Salvage District

I went positively crazy with this layout for the Prima June BAP.

When I saw the page map, I knew that I wanted to use some of the vintage

Prima laces that I had won a long time ago.

I particularly love the Salvage District collection 

and knew I had the perfect photo

of the open doorway to an antique shop in Asheville NC.

I used some IOD Baroque 4 molds and paper clay

to make the architectural elements onto which

I adhered the photo - at an angle so it give perspective to the layout.

I layered lots of Prima laces with some sequin waste

and added Salvage District flowers and some cut outs 

from the Chateau paper and the cover sheet on the watercolor pad.

Originally I was going to use

another Salvage District paper for the background 

but the photo had so much gold and brown that instead

I used Timeless Memories Everlast.

I painted some of the papers with gold pigment

and used the water soluble oil pastels

to make them more compatible with the background and the photo.

I then added some vintage Prima buttons and 

some other little embellishments that just seemed to fit.

Finally I typed the journaling on my little Royal typewriter:

"the salvage district where you discover

treasures, magic, and mystery."

This layout was a labor of love

Hope you like it

ttfn

A Color Challenge - yellow and fuchsia

the June Color Challenge at Scrapbook.com

I pulled out anything yellow or fuchsia from my stash

which wasn't much as neither of these is a favorite of mine

but

it all came together

as it usually does

and the concept morphed into

Paper Girl

then I had lots of problems with the photo

as the yellow paper looked almost cream

so I had to pump up the yellow to get that right

and then some of the fuchsia pieces look a little orange-y

oh well

By the way, have you seen Daphne's Diary?

I was in West Palm yesterday and stopped at B&N to look at magazines

and found it

It's a bit pricey(from the UK)

but WOW wow and wow

I could look at the pix at day long

so much inspiration!

Check it out

ttfn

The Memory Nest Make It Mondays 61 and 62

 Memory Nest 61 

I'm not big on large titles so this one is a bit different for me

I forced myself to use paper with an edge (again not my favorite)

and fussy cut the flower to insert my photo

Then I messed up doing the title with rub-ons and had to 

figure out how to fix it - actually I think it looks pretty cool

so I guess you'd say it was a happy accident!

Number 62

this one I created the background with glimmer mists

using a cut out butterfly as a mask

I then cut out the butterfly in the upper left corner

this layout was a fun one as I saw this fantastic footstool

in a catalog and loved it

but it is so absolutely totally not my style

my house is done in whites and creams

and I use a few colored accents during the seasons

like now some blue pillows on the couch etc.

It's good to push yourself

so try it sometime

You just never know what can happen!

ttfn

White with one June challenge - Opera Mauve

Playing with paint

my DH was replacing the soffits on our house

and I took some of the old ones that he was throwing away

to use as stencils

I think they worked great

This was certainly a challenge to use just white and opera mauve

I mixed the color by combining Cheap Joe's Janet's violet rose

with Holbein lavendar

I love how the watercolor moved and left areas

where the colors merged and then diverged

I also painted the wooden die cut and the Prima flower.

the photo is a favorite of mine that I have used before

added a candy wrapper, novelty yarn, leaves, and a metal title

Now off to link to http://whitewith1.blogspot.ca/

ttfn

Kiss and tell

Just a little post for my DH

who is having surgery today

this photo was taken some years ago when we were

in Bermuda - a fun day riding a scooter

ttfn

Graphic 45 #UNIQUELY YOURS challenge

for the Graphic 45 #UNIQUELY YOU challenge

a photo of me in an Audrey Hepburn type pose (LOL)

surrounded by photos from an old Vogue magazine

and fussy cut Graphic 45 images and stickers -

 Communique and Halloween in Wonderland

the background paper is On the Dot from the Communique collection

I wanted to keep the palette soft but with a little pop of color

so I made the flower from some aqua patterned ribbon 

and added a few flowers and a butterfly

ttfn

Prima June PPP challenge

This is entry for the Prima June PPP challenge -

the colors are peach (copper) and banana blue

I printed out one of my watercolor paintings of Hana 

onto heavy card stock and played around with some pieces

of Prima papers that I have 

and then WOW when I placed her on this sheet of

Vintage Emporium Opera Seria

and saw the little bird, it was magic.

Pulling out Prima flowers - some vintage Madrigal flowers

in peaches and nocturne blues, and Finnabair alterable flowers

that I painted with watercolor paint,

and then fussy cut flowers from a piece of

Fairy Belle Collection Le Toulle,

which I also painted,

and finally some from a piece of vintage Prima paper

that I no longer have the name strip.

I used some vintage blue Prima lace

and for the tree, I used  a winter branches grape piece

that I twisted and glued to the little branch printed on the paper

I enhanced the branch and bird with a brown Pigma Micron 05 pen

This layout probably took the longest time of any I have done

but it was a joy, and the time passed so quickly.

Hope you like this one - back tomorrow with another layout.

ttfn

Catching up

Back from a short trip to the "left coast"

of Florida, that is

and catching up with some layouts I created last weekend

for a sewing challenge, a mixed media challenge,

and a sticker challenge.

I did some plein air sketching while in Sarasota

and hope to spend some time this week 

using my sketches as reference for larger

watercolors.

While in Tampa, I went to IKEA and found some

awesome cards for altering, tags, brushes, markers, 

and a really cool easel -

I love IKEA - so much inspiration!

Now to finish 2 layouts that are almost done -

one for a Graphic 45 challenge

and one for the challenge at the White plus one blog

(I painted white paper for this one and it buckled so right

now I am pressing it flat with books on top of it.

The perils of watercolor!!)

ttfn

A thousand thanks

A quickie card (well actually sewing the buttons to the paper

took a while but who's counting?)

to say thanks to everyone

who has read my blog, 

who has commented on my ramblings,

and who has inspired me.

And of course, thanks for all of my blessings.

Everyday I say thank you for my 

husband, my son, and my life.

A thousand thanks is not nearly enough!

ttfn

Scrapbook.com challenges - a two-fer

Sometimes participating in challenges is truly a challenge for me

The above layout started out as an entry for

June's Inspired by a Word

(summer, night, and insect)

and then suddenly expanded to the

June 5 ingredients + yours

(stamping, sewing, punching or cutting edges, 3 photos, and large word plus)

Somehow I did it

although the word GROW isn't very large.

the word summer is there 4 times, night once, 

and insect 3 times.

the bee in the upper left is stamped, the ribbon is sewn,

one of the papers is trimmed with pinking shears

there are 3 photos

and I guess the plus are the insects I put on

or perhaps the dictionary pages that I like to use.

I had fun figuring out how to get everything in

so off to Scrapbook.com

to post it.

ttfn

San Francisco in my memory nest

A layout

for the memory nest challenge
(I reversed the sketch)

some vintage paper

and fabric scraps sewn to the paper

along with ribbon and Prima laces, 

a few stickers, a Jenni Bowlin butterfly,

some feathers,

a Maya Road chiffon flower

and

a photo of Brian and me 

on a trip to San Francisco in the 80s

Good memories

ttfn