Is it summer yet?

I know we are only in the middle of winter. But its too cold out! I did this little art journal page of wishing it was a bit warmer (and sunny) outside in Chicago.

The background is from a calender that I got in the $1 spot in Target. I cut it and glued it on the page with modge podge. After it dried I took some yellow paint that was inside the cap and with a somewhat dry baby wipe just rubbed the pain on the page in spots. The orange circles you see are a stack of mini cup cake liners. I just took the group of them and dabbed them in orange paint and stamped them on the page in spots.

The swirl you see is a chipboard piece that was just laying on my desk. I painted it the same yellow I used earlier  I stamped the Harlequin stamp in clear embossing ink pad, and sprinkled some heat and stick embossing powder that I had for YEARS that I got a a local rubber stamp store that is now closed. It is very similar to the Ranger stuff. After embossing, it was very tacky, I sprinkled some yellow glitter from the Art Institute Glitter. Glued it on the page with Aileen's tacky.

The bottom of the page I used this sand type stuff that is made by MuddPuddles(I got it in a RAK a while back and thought this was a great page to use it on to try it out). The color I used is called Lemonade, it also has a little bit of glitter in it.

I stamped  the Beach lady on Kromecote with black Memento ink pad. Frst I tried coloring her with my Neo color II's but wasn't liking it. Luckily it came off with no problem, with maybe a little tint of the peach. I went back to coloring her with the Artist's Loft water colors. I glossy accented the sunglasses on her and on the little birdie. Glued her on with glossy accents. Finally I used little sticker alpha letters by Kaiser Kraft (love these little letter stickers) and spelled out "is it summer yet?"

Stamp used
Beach Lady

items used
Kromecote
Straphmore Visual Journal 3 1/2 by 5
calender page
craft paints
cupcake liners
modge podge
water colors
PuddlePuddle
chipboard piece
heat and stick embossing powder
glitter
alphabet stickers
Aileen's tack glue
glossy accents

ARC book club read for Feburary

This month I read Big Hair and Flying Cows by Delores J. Wilson. I bought this book at my library sidewalk sale. I picked it up because of the title. LOL

It takes place in Georgia where the Title character works at the family Garage. Well her 2 brothers didn't want to join in the family business so they left home when they could. She drives a tow truck getting people out of jams, or to pick them something at the grocery store, or pick them up to take them somewhere. She rents a house from the son who's father now lives in a nursing home. The old mad escapes from the nursing home and comes in he house since he knows where he hid the key to get in. lol

It really didn't have plot to it the book. More like the month in the life of Bertie Byrd. It was just one funny thing after another. Even though there was no big plot it all gelled.

My art for this month is another journal page.

The background I did with some Ditto spray and some Lindy's stamp gang starburst sprays and some water. and dropped and dragged the paper through the ink. I stamped the brick background stamp by Viva Las VegaStamps! with a rainbow pad. To represent the garage. I printed a picture of Mater for the tow truck  The frame was from the Recollection's The Create Collection. I cut a frame out of the paper, and wrote Byrd and Son's" (the father hoped one or both of his sons got in the family business). I then stamped out on white card stock the title of the book with cow alphabet letters that I got a while back from Viva Las VegaStamps! way before I got on the Design team. :) I had never used them yet so I thought it was a good time to use them. :)

My next book to read in March will be Scoop to kill. See ya next month! 

Buzz agent report on Cafe Escapes

So now I tried all the flavors of the Cafe Escapes that was in my Buzz kit. None were grounds like coffee, Like I thought. Well I knew the hot chocolate were powders, but I didn't know the other flavors were powders too.

My favorite was the Cafe Caramel. I love caramel, and it this had great flavor to it. The Cafe Vanilla was good too, my Least favorite was the Cage Mocha. I love chocolate, this was too much for me. The Chai was good and so were the hot chocolates. But I like the Milk chocolate more than the dark, but that was my preference. I did find though that these drinks did not perk me up like regular coffee does. But it taste very yummy.

I most defiantly will be getting the Cafe Caramel.

Be loved

So I had fun aking the last backgrounds, I did another timed backgrounds, but this time not timed. they turned out pretty cool.

I cut them into 2 postcards size. I then stamped on white cardstock the Be Adorable stamp and Man and woman symbol stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps! with Black Menento ink pad. I distress the edges with Picked Raspberry Distress ink pad. I cut out a heard and colored it with a magenta sharpie marker edged it with a black Bic Mark it marker. I put 2 sets of 3 strips of homemade washi tape from the washi tape backgrounds VLVS! has. Taped everything down with Miracle Tape.

Entering this in the Simon Says stamp and show Messy Challenge.

Postcards and ATCs

So the other day I did a blog post on backgrounds I did on Sunday. Well they are no all cut up to postcard and atc sizes. I worked on them the last couple of days and they are now finished. The postcard I used brochure from the DR. Seuss exhibit a couple years ago at the Museum of Science and Industry. and one is from a old book that I had when I was a kid and was falling apart.

The ATC's are from a Precious Moments catalog well 3 of the 4. One is from a magazine.

timed layers

Last Night on Paula, Journal Artista Ustream show she did an exercise from the book Kaleidoscope by Suzanne Simanaitis. It was doing things on a time limit. From 5 or 10 minutes. Painting, writing, scribbling, stamping, gluing, spraying. I didn't follow along last night, But I wrote everything down and did it today. I had fun. :)  I took a frozen food box and used one side only. This was my results. 

Lots of Layers and Texture. You can't see the first 2 layers which were ink pads stamping, and writing. I used 4 VLVS! Stamps in layer 8. You can some what see them still in bits, but I wanted so see more of the stamps, So I did go back and stamp some more. And that looks like this. They will eventually be cut into either ATC's or postcards. :)

Now for some close ups! :D

Buzz Campaign: Cafe Escapes

Yesterday I got a package from Buzzagent.com with my latest campaign for Cafe Escapes. Inside there were coupons for a box of 12 kcups, and 2 boxes. Each box held 4 k cups. One box had each of their hot chocolates(milk and Dark), chai Latte, and Cafe Mocha. The second box had  their 2 new flavors Cafe Vanilla, and Cafe Caramel(two of each flavor).

This morning I had the Cafe Caramel and the Cafe Vanilla. I enjoyed both of them. You can taste the caramel flavor and the vanilla flavor in them.Something I don't usually taste in flavor coffee's. I can't wait to try the Chai Latte and the Cafe Mocha. The Hot chocolate (the milk chocolate) I have tried and its okay. Its better than Swiss miss k cups.