Sketching Bananas

I finally started a sketchbook which I've been meaning to do for the past couple years.  My first entry is very basic because I think it'll take some time to improve my drawing skills.  So here's some bananas that I've done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook:

A wonderful artist Dion Dior has a Friday Sketch posting on her website here; so you may want to stop by and join in, or just browse the artwork.  Thanks for stopping by.  :0)

Spring Colors

When I was in the early grades of elementary school, girls wore dresses to school.  All throughout winter I endured itchy, uncomfortable tights because of the colder temperatures.  Back then, one of the exciting changes spring brought was wearing knee socks or ankle socks to school once again.  I wonder if anyone else associates this with spring?!  Well spring has arrived and with it the urge to use the beautiful colors of the warmer months.  I pulled out a variety of Paper Temptress paper that reminds me of spring and flowers.

The shimmering border is Amethyst Mica, and the following are the colors used for the flower background:  Razzleberry, Orange Fizz, Sour Apple, and Blu Rasberry; all as delicious looking as their names sound.  My Michelle Perkett digi image was colored on Cryogen White card stock and the die-cut paper is a wonderful thick card stock called Classic Avalanche Linen White.

Have a beautiful day and thanks for stopping by.  :0)

Slumber Party

Recently, I've become a member of the Paper Temptress design team; an online store that sells an abundance of gorgeous paper.  Maybe this will finally get me to take some photography lessons, as photographing the wonderful textures of the paper can be challenging.  Here's a little close up shot of a memory box die:

The silver metallic glossy paper has a very soft metallic sheen and the paper is extremely smooth, and you can see the beautiful sheen in this photo of the rose quartz mica metallic paper.  In this photo the white feltweave color isn't accurate, it's more of a soft white, but you can see some of the texture here.  I really love the color Blu Rasberry; it's scrumptious!

   My stamped Gilli image is on Cryogen White which is one of the easiest papers for Copic coloring because of the smooth blending.  Thanks so much for stopping by ~ please have a look at Paper Temptress site for more inspiring paper projects!

Strawberry Watercolor

Lately I've been determined to improve my watercolor skills so I'm taking online instruction from Anna Mason.  Her site is called Watercolors with WOW in case you're interested in watercolor painting;  I've found her instruction very helpful.  I chose to paint a strawberry for lesson one, and who would think that this could be so difficult, eeeeekkk but it was.  Fun, but required much concentration for me, hopefully with time it won't be such a brain strain.  Here's my painting:

My watercolor was painted on Arches 140 lb Hot Press paper, hot press is new to me, but I like the smooth surface.  Thanks for stopping by!  :0)

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Valentine's Day!

     Hope everyone's day is filled with good things!   For the above I used a Tiddlyinks digi image and colored with copics.  :)

Valentine's Day

     In elementary school, one of my favorite holidays was Valentine's Day.  Every year our class would spend some school time designing our Valentine's mailboxes.  Oh my goodness I loved this, all the construction paper, little scissors,  smell of rubber cement, crayolas; and things haven't changed all that much as evidenced by my craft room.  We have a *love challenge* going on over at Oozak Blog and would love to have you enter.  With my husband in mind, I've designed a card using Paper Smooches Word Salad stamps.   The font designs of these stamps come out crisp and sharp, and think I'll also be able to get a lot of use out of them for mixed media projects as well as cards.

          The always beautiful Memento Inks were used for stamping, and Copic markers to color in the stamps.  So the words that were colored would stand out more, I gave them a coating of Rangers Glossy Accents.  The little hearts on the envelope are included in the Paper Smooches Salad ~ so cute.  Hope to see you over at Oozak!

Treasure Chest

          Happy New Year!!!  My first blog post is a repeat project that was one of my more popular projects.    I'm re-posting it to include the steps I took to create the chest.

  

Beginning with a 7 ½” x 5” x 5” paper mache box from a craft supply store, I spray painted the entire box using a metallic (oil-rubbed bronze) color.  Next I spray painted 16 brass brads with the bronze paint and set aside to dry.  After letting the box dry thoroughly, I brushed acrylic paint in a gold metallic color onto the raised bands.  I painted one band at a time because I immediately swiped the paint with a paper towel while it was wet.  I applied 2 coats to get the look I wanted.  

           Next I cut design paper to size; I used Crowded Attic by Tim Holtz, distressed the edges of the paper with the Zutter Distrezz-It-All and sponged Distress Ink in Antique Linen and Tea Dye onto the edges of the paper.   I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the box.   The design paper is nice and thick so there was no buckling, but I did need to lift the edges of the paper and apply some additional Mod Podge in areas that were not laying flat.    

           

    

    

                 Using jewelry pliers, I cut the chain to size.  I bought the chain necklace on clearance at a craft store.  Next, marking off the areas for the brads with chalk, I used an awl to punch the holes then dabbed some glue around the holes for the brads.  The brads and chains were inserted into the marked areas and glue was added to the brads from inside the box.  The last step was decorating the box!  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  :0)