Yay for Messy Fingers again!!

One of the things I want to do this year is a little more Art Playing. And....I was perusing one of my favorite artists blogs, Roben-Marie, who happened to mention that she was doing a new on-line art class...a FREE on-line art class. Hmmm, did I need more convincing...one of my art idols, free, playing art...it's just to perfect.

So this week I officially joined the Strathmore (yes the paper art people) Doodle Unleashed Mixmedia Art Class. And oh joy oh joy it was fun!! I spent yesterday evening playing with all kinds of art joys.

Tada here is the result.
First off I got some of the best comments ever from my family. My son even said: "Mom it should be hanging in a museum." I take this as a totally honest comment because beeeelieve me when I say that 10 year old boys are not known for their un-requested flattery unless they want something. Okay maybe I haven't ruled out totally that he wants something, but I do think it looks completely cool.

Just for grins here are a few pics of the process:

This one shows the first process of putting stencils on the paper and using misters or even in my case Fabric paint. I loved loved how this step turned out and was happy for a chance to break out the copper fabric spray paint! (Like any dumb animal, I sure do love anything that glitters a little.)

You can see some of the things that made the images from buttons to wooden sticks to flowers. One of my favorite images is the cat. The stencil smeared just right so the cat looked all fluffy like they do when they are angry. The pears kinda rock too though.

This second image was made after I added the Cray-Pas and paint.

I'm just going to say that even though I have a ton of art supplies, I never have quite the right thing. I don't think she used Cray-Pas, or watercolor paper, or Old Acrylic paint. This was all working against me. And to be quite honest I do not like it really at this stage. It looked very amateurish to me. I mean I can not make a straight line with the paint brush to save my life, the texture of the watercolor paper was working against me, and the india ink bled everywhere on this paper. And Cray pas and I are still not friends!

But I kept going and persevered. And heck the next step was using my new Copic Markers. So how could I not keep going? And well can you tell I do love markers, pens, and pencils more than paint still. It was at this point the piece came alive for me.

Maybe I will even hang it on the wall? Maybe...

Project Life #1 Post

Well we are off to a rolling start with Project Life. Got last week documented, pictures taken, laid out, etc!! And here is the result:


I totally tried to keep it simple this week. One of the things that really worked for me was to leave a card out that had a running list of all the weeks highlights. This is something I will totally do every week just to keep me balanced while life is moving at a fast pace around here. It also helped me to separate the mundane from the things that we will want to remember.

When it came to putting the whole thing together, I definitely need to streamline somethings. For one thing, I will probably take 15 minutes or so sometime during the week to do the Date Card.

This gave me a little chance to play with my Tattered Angels Misters and some Heidi Swapp Ghost letters.

And although for the most part I went with Becky's standard kit (Turquoise Edition) I did add a few additional pieces of my own. This piece is a little piece of my daughters art work. She loves using the rotating bed to make circles so I have a million of these and did not mind embellishing with a sewn heart and a few descriptive words.

I have a feeling it will be hard to remember to put in small bits of paper and life that pass our way. But I'm looking forward to playing with them, when I do remember.

Finally I totally adored using my digital stash to add to the joy. I will have to do a further post on this as there is lots of fun things to use. For this project, I used Nancy Rowe's Dreamy Photos 1 to enhance my picture of the back porch and crab legs for New Years. I just love that grungy and contrasty look for photos that ordinarily would be kind of boring. In addition, I knew that I needed one more small pocket to fill, so I grabbed Lisa Sisneros Embrace Kit cause I knew she had some outstanding word art.

I made an easy block template in PSE, so adding my pictures or digital art work would be easy peasy. I will share more on that as well probably tomorrow.

So there you go. It is just a beginning and I have to admit, I'm so not feel entirely sure footed with this all, but I did enjoy myself and look forward to next week.

Off on a run with scrapping. But who could totally resist these fun templates by Studio 68. She rocks! Credits are in at the link.

So sigh when I think of this lovely blog. What a rotten blogger I have been. It's just that I always struggle between being creative and telling about it. It seems that being creative usually wins out.

But one goal for 2012 is to blog more often...to get the ball rolling, I will share a few creative goals -
1. Create things to share here, or link to where I'm sharing.
2. Project Life (I'm such a follower, but when somethin's good, somethin's good, kwim.)
3. Play with all things creative, like sketching, art journaling, and maybe even sewing.
4. Learn, love, and enjoy Evernote and other technological loves.
5. and as always find balance between Life, Creating, and Sharing. (I've been enjoying life maybe a little to much. Time to find time to document.)

CatScrap officially turns 5 Today!!! Whoooot. Happy Birthday CatScrap!!!!

I truly can't believe it's been five years. I haven't been around CS quite that long, but I do remember being a CT member for birthday #3 so I suppose I've been around almost as long. I've seen plenty of good scrappers and designers come and go. I definitely miss some of the old faces. But I always love welcoming new ones too. You never know others will inspire you. One thing is for sure, CatScrap is still inspiring me after all these years.

Oh there I go on with my reminiscing. Sorry....what you heard there was a party or something...blog hop....or something.....yup!! And here you can pick up not one but TWO pages.
I'll lay mine out first for ya:
Here is my layout in full view:


If you oh so love, and I oh so hope you do, you can grab it here: http://www.box.net/shared/52vxg8eg21k9pn8cux9b

And thanks so the talented Raji you can also pick up this one:

Looooove eeeet? Then grab it here: http://www.box.net/shared/s261t22lk6oaemj2om6n

Now while I'm at it (PRIZE ALERT) I should let you know there are plenty of opportunities to grab the kit that made this beauty and lots of other goodies on CatScrap FB/Twitter/Blog, and and and there are challenges going on with the bonanza prize of a $25 GC to CatScrap up for grabs. So head to the forum and check check that out. (oh and course a killer sale in the shop, lol)

Hope you enjoy the QP and the celebration - kitty CatScrap style!

Now run along to Jassie's blog http://jassiescraps.blogspot.com/ and scoop up some more pages!

So if I'm updating my blog, then yup that means another awesome CatWalk and another awesome CS blog hop. WHOOOT

And all I have to say is thank goodness Juliana Kneipp had this kit ready when I got home. So perfect for the pictures I snapped on Grandpa's boat!


Like it. Cool. Then feel free to grab the QP below:

You can grab the qp here: http://www.box.net/shared/am1hil96y675s4txftuz

Now off you go to the next hop - Elaine's home (which I totally stalk by the way. She doesn't know it, but I can't help it. Such cute daughters!!) - http://ultracoolmama.com

Thanks and have a cool summer!!

What a cliff hanger...sheesh!! Sorry about not posting here in like forever. See the funny thing is, I've been doing new things, just not sharing about them.

So you may wonder what dragged me back to my lo full neglected blog. Well just a gift for you...my faithful (and possibly non-existent) followers. It's time to CELEBRATE another

CATSCRAP CATWALK

Yup that means Pahhhrrty Pahhhhrttty Pahhhrrrty...CatScrap style. Yup chats, challenges, games, Prizes, Prizes, Prizes. Now just so you know (and because I have you held captive and I made the graphic...) I will post this first:
Now on to the free stuff. These are my finished layouts with the Spring Catwalk:
I used Little Butterfly Wings Springalicious Templates; Fiddlette Design's Spring-A-Ling-A-Ding-Dong; and Julianna Kneipp's Wish You Were Here kits.

This is for the Six Word Memoir Challenge (you should so google this project. So cool.) and used Spring-A-Ling-A-Ding-Dong by Fiddlette Design; Vintage Blooms and Schmootzy Alpha (older product) by Nancie Rowe Janitz.

and Finally
Using Flying High by Torta Gialla; Spring-A-Ling-A-Ding-Dong by Fiddlette Design; Wish You Were Here by Julianna Kneipp; Spring Fever by Nancy Kubo; Altered 365-May by Something Blue Studio; and Fresh Alpha by Creashens. And yes...this is your QP!!
You can downloaded it RIGHT NOW here: http://www.box.net/shared/30a0j11evl

And just cause I you know I love ya...and Nicole wanted to share too...Here is ANOTHER beautiful QP -
She used the gorgeous kit by Torta Gialla Flying High.
You can download this lovely here: http://www.box.net/shared/gnm91jr598


Now you can head on over to Tanja's blog: http://thundersscrapblog.blogspot.com/ to keep on Hoppin'.

Super hope you enjoy all the Catwalk has to bring your way!! Keep checking out the CatScrap blog/forums to keep updated!