AHH, A Color Break

I did something I never thought was possible. I overloaded on color! I think it was when I filled the  journal page aside the doodling project in the last post with twinkling H2O's. So I decided to take a break this morning and make some ATC's for the ladies I will be seeing shortly in my monthly class at the Stamp Cache.

The one below was the first of the series and set the theme of "time". The other part of the challenge I set for myself was to use stuff that was either hanging around my desk or in the embellishment bin...some of which have been there for a very, very, long time. 

I had just gotten the new smaller size of the London and Paris stamps; they were lots of fun to play with!

Below are the Working Smaller class samples, loaded with lots of wooden goodies from Helga at Artchix Studio.

I might be ready to work larger for a while!! Enjoy.

21 Secrets Has Started

Woo-Hoo. 21 Secrets has begun! If you aren't familiar with 21 Secrets it's an online workshop open from now through the end of the year with you guessed it, 21 different classes and teachers for $59 US. It's tons of fun. And since this is my year to learn new things, techniques, etc. I have embraced it. Here's my first piece.

It's from a class taught by Cathy Bluteau, called Doodling Our Way. Definitely in the "more is more" category, but I have to admit once I got started it was pretty dang fun. My favorite section was the little flowers. They reminded me of wall paper. 

Cathy's premise is to start with a small collage of flowers and some text and move on from there. I used some flowers from some scrapbook paper and then painted in my own version of them to help pull the piece together. Because my flowers were kind of "painterly" anyway I just painted over them. 

I found it a really fun way to spend an evening. 

WOYWW #201

Ah yes, the Tuesday night ritual.

Whoops. Secret's out I guess. Yes it's still Tuesday night here in beautiful, SNOWY Palmer Alaska but it's already Wednesday in Julia's World where for some amazing reason I can not fathom she has been linking us up so we can peak into other crafty dens and see what's about. It's an amazing group of kind, generous souls and I really do look forward to seeing what folks are up to Great Britain, Oz, the US, South Africa and points beyond. And the kindest is our friend Julia, who organizes it every week - when she's not looking for little white squares.

I'm afraid I'm a tad bit boring this week. Had to  finish some class samples and a birthday present which you can check out here if you would like, and then horror of horrors, I actually spent most of Sunday cleaning (which tells you I do not spend most Sundays that way). I did tidy up a bit in the Fun Room and moved in a TV tray at the end of my desk which gives me a little bit of space.

See? At the other end of the desk, but the wall.

Well maybe not, but it is nice to have a bit more space on the desk. The baggie in front is a full of NEW paints - twinkling H2O's and Silk Acrylic Glazes for a class I'm taking from Dion Dior in 21 Secrets. I can't wait. I had forgotten how sparkly and luminescent they are. I have a totally crush on Dion right now. Her work is spectacular and she seems like such a nice, grounded person.

Back to my desk - my art journal is right where I left it with an unfinished 21 Secrets project called Doodling our Way which has been amazingly fun and restful. And then there is the usual this and thats.

I was actually pretty disciplined about the doodling project. I  pulled out a color range of Copic markers and then stuck to it...certainly helps the page flow better. When it's done next week, I'll show you. I'm posting this page because you can actually see the window sill....I thought it might be nice to have proof it was clean--once.

Hope you all have a lovely week and enjoy the people you love.

Anything Goes so Dream HUGE

A very dear friend of mine is celebrating a zero birthday this year and she has been so encouraging about my art adventures that I thought it was safe to try something new for her gift.  This corresponds very nicely with this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp which is anything goes.

I signed up for Lifebook 2013 this year and one of the first weeks classes was this great class from Christy Tomlinson. Not only was the class fun, but it introduced me to Christy's work which I just love. It's joyful, colorful, and fairly intuitive. So with a big thanks to Christy as my inspiration for the background, this is the canvas I came up with.

I am really happy with how the background turned out. It was a blast to work on...I just kind of threw caution to the wind and here's the thing: when you buy a really, really, really small paint brush, you can do fairly decent detail work. Hmmm. Who would have guessed?

I was a little less happy with the words...love the saying, but it was hard to convey. 

I do however love the idea of sparkling, so I thought I would add this ticket that was floating around on my desk so I could use the paperclip!

And of course she needed a birthday card....

You can't really tell the size, but this is one of Tim Holtz's small blueprint stamps, colored with distress markers and a heart from Helga at Artchix Studio...I just love her cut outs!! I colored it up with a few Copic makers and added a chit-caht sticker. 

So hard to photograph, but there is sparkle on the flame and between the frosting and the cupcake with one of my new FAVORITE things - a glitter pen. 

There we have it - a birthday gift for a wonderful friend. Happy Birthday...because when you have a birthday with a zero in it, you get to celebrate all year long!!

Enjoy. 

Happy WOYWW 200 Julia!!!

For the last couple of years I have faded in and out of What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday hosted each and every week by Queen Julia of WOYWW land. She invites us to take a pix of our work space and share it with folks literally, around the world. This is what my desk looked like tonight:

She has steadfastedly (I think I might just have made up that word....) posted and let us just kind of hang out. I really appreciate her. When my life was kinda crazy last year and I was moving twice and didn't have any creative space she made sure I got an ATC during the swap even though I couldn't reciprocate. AND she even sent me a button which I proudly display on my desk. I appreciate her humor and style. So Thank You Ms. Dunnitt!

I've been experimenting, working on class items, finishing up a birthday present and working in my art journal over the last week....here's a sample.  

I was in a serious funk last week and I want to sincerely  thank the ladies who reached across the miles to commiserate and sympathize. It was like getting hugs. One of the many reasons I love WOYWW.