art journal class: transfers

So today was another art journal class over at the Crafting place taught by DeeDee Catron of Viva Las VegaStamps! and UmWow Studio. Today's lesson was all about Transfers with gel medium. I've done transfers before, but this was using images printed on a laser jet printer. I've done with magazine and inkjet.

the background is using stencils as stamps. We sprayed some homemade coffee spray onto the stencil. The one I'm using is the confetti heart stencil from UmWow. After spraying I carefully picked up the stencil and placed it onto the watercolor paper. After I dried it I took some Walnut stain distress spray and water on my craft mat. I took a cap from an old spray bottle and another circle from something and stamped it on the paper. They call it paper marking now, I still call it stamping. lol After everything dried I went outside to spray it with fixative. Definitely going to try and find SpectraFix Spray Fixative because you can spray it inside and not an spray paint  can like the other fixatives out there. Next I added some text paper and then did the transfer with the heavy matte gel medium. When I was taking the paper off some of the print was coming off too. I probably didn't add enough matte gel to the paper or the butterfly. I quit while I was ahead. I knew there was more white fuzz to take off but didnt want to risk taking taking any more off. When I came home I trimmed the sheet to size of the journal and attached with miracle tape. 

Anything but A Card Challenge 41: anything goes

This month its anything goes for anything but a card challenge blog. And for the challenge I did an art journal page.

A couple weeks ago I was finally able to go to the Crafting Place to take a art journal class taught by DeeDee Catron. It was really fun. I got to play with the new Distress stain sprays to make the background. We also played with coffee spray spraying the book page die cuts and the canvas resist by Prima.

I chose Salted Ocean Distress Stain and the Picked Raspberry (Shocking I know! ) Distress stain spray. sprayed and dabbed on craft mat. Then sprayed water on them hen I dragged the water color paper to the craft mat. dried it with heat gun, then repeated for 3 more times. Then we glued on the dies and dollies on the bottom of the page.  doodled on the sides and top of the page. When I came home I did cut the paper to size to put in my journal. I had to doodle the top of the page again since it got cut off. Before we left I stamped the little girl wearing a crown from VLVS! on water color paper. I added her to the page when I got home. I used foam tabs to attach her. I added the sentiment from Ginger House Studio attached that with foam tabs too. I attached the watercolor paper to the art journal with Miracle tape.

Don't forget to check out the blog to see what the other design team members are doing and come play along! you can do what ever you want as long as its not a card!

Oct. ARC

I know I had posted what I was going to be reading for the year. But I decided not to review 2 of the books that i picked. I did read them though. So as of this writing (March 19) I have read all of the books I picked for the year. Remember we are selling the house and I wanted to read some of the hardcopy as I could so I didn't have to bring them with me. I still have some paperback books, but they are part of a series and I don't have i ones before or after the books I have. Call me crazy but i like to read them in order. lol

For the October ARC I read an e-book through the digital library. Why I did that instead one of the many I have already downloaded, I didn't know. LOL The book is "A Slice of Murder"  by Chris Cavender. First of the series called Pizza Lovers Mysteries. It takes place n a small town in North Carolina(like all cozy mysteries) The main Charterer is Eleanor Swift. She owns a Pizza place Slice of Delight(thus the them of the series. LOL). She took over the ownership when her deceased husband, Joe first opened the place. Her sister Maddy helps out as hostess and server.

In "Slice of Murder" Eleanor goes to make a light night delivery to Richard Olsen, but when she arrives she finds him dead. After calling the police, Kevin, the police chief, suspects Eleanor did it. Now Eleanor and her sister look into the murder to clear her name.

After reading biographies, and thrillers, and other books this year, its nice to get back to reading a cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters in the book. Like all cozies it was an easy read. I will be reading the others in the series.

Happy Halloween!

Okay so this card I made the same time I made the last Halloween never made it to the mail box to someone. But since its Halloween I thought I show it. :)

I used cardstock scraps from La-La-Land stamps Halloween kit. and decorative paper from the kit.

 I stamped the new Julie Nutting stamp that I picked up the other week at Crafting Place. I stamped her on manila cardstock with versafine black ink pad. Used watercolor artist loft to paint her hair and sleeves and skirt. I used scraps from the last card for her shirt and scarf. I added black Stickles for the hair band. It needed something else for the front of the card. So I took 3 wood veneer bats that were in the kit and painted them black watercolor and then added the black stickles to them. I let them sit overnight and then glued them to the card.

The inside of the card I used the Witchy poo stamp set for the sentiment and the bat. in the same black ink pad.

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween cards

It was a while since I've been in a swap and when I saw Laurel talking about doing Halloween card swap I decided to join as I brought with me my Halloween stamps. I did start playing around what I was in my head in my journal, but it didn't work out becuase 1. I didn't bring much cardstock with me and 2 I didn't bring any card bases to put what I planned on doing on the card base. So I had to go another way. I won a $10 gift certificate from 7 kids collage fund and ordered the witchy poo stamp set of Julie Nutting by Prima with it. Late in August I had gotten a happy mail package from Diane and init was some scrapbook papers of Nightingale by Colorbox and Oriental trading company. so I used 2 sheets of each papers. and cut them in to 6x6. and made cards from them. They are not the most traditional colors of Halloween but you gotta use what you got and that what I got! :)

I know I know....pink and black what a shocker of colors coming from me. :)

I stamped the witch and pumpkins and bats on white cardstock(I did bring some) and colored them with crayola twistable color pencils. Her dress is another paper from Oriental trading company. The hat is another paper from nightingale. The black tape with white poka dots is ducking duck tape. The witching hour is from Viva Las VegaStamps! and stamped on scrap white cardstock. I added some sequins that I got at Dollar tree a few weeks ago. 

The inside I stamped Happy Haunting from Viva Las VegaStamps!

Halloween Card #1

Thanks to some friends sending me crafty RAK's I've been able to get crafty while we are STILL looking for a place to live (My parents did put a bid on a place but so did 3 other people. and the guy turned down all of us and countered which wasn't really a counter offer as it was his asking price! My parents did counter but we didn't get the house. We are still looking) . Course it would be nice to have my own stuff to play with along with the crafty goodness sent to me.

Anyway in one of the RAK's I was sent the Sept. La-La-Land Sept kit. Its a Halloween kit. the kit is great. Came with papers and embellishments, stamp and dies. It did come with a link to download 3 projects to make with the kit. But since I don't have my big shot with me to use the dies, I didn't bother looking at that.

Here is a card I made with some of the kit.

I cut the black cardstock that came in the kit horizontal and folded in half. I then cut the orange cardstock 5 1/2 by 4 1/2 and the pattern paper 5 by 4. I attached the papers to the black card base with Miracle tape. The images I stamped on white cardstock with Stazon black ink pad. I colored with Crayola twistable color pencils. I blended with a Q-tip and baby oil.

I attached the set of 3 pumpkins with Miracle tape. Then the individual pumpkins, the small one I used Miracle tape to attach the the other single pumpkin. Then I used foam dots to attach those to to the set of 3. Then attached her to the card using the foam dots too. 

The inside I used the extra piece of orange cardstock using the smooth side. I stamped her again and stamped the sentiment. 

I do have another Halloween card I'm working on, but S T I C K L E S had to dry before putting it together. :)

Anything But a Challenge 40: autumn magic/spring wonder

This months theme for the challenge over at Anything but a card challenge blog is Autumn magic/spring wonder depending what part of the world you are in. I did Halloween.  As you guys know I just move out to Las Vegas last August. We still haven't found a place yet. All the places we looked at the bedrooms are small not enough room for our bedroom furniture let alone my craft stuff! I was smart enough to bring with me my Halloween stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps! when I was packing some craft stuff to take with me in the car for the road trip. Because I knew I would be doing something on Halloween for the blog.:)

I did a journal page for this months challenge. I used a scrap of paper (nightingale from Colorbox) that I used for another project I was working on. Cut it to the size of the journal pages, but a 1/4 smaller. i used my distresser tool to distress the edges. The journal itself I used pink water color to paint the edges of the white paper. I then stamped the fence, moon and bats broom Viva Las VegaStamps! I took the tree background stamp and only stamped the branches on the left and right side of the paper. I stamped the witch falling off the broom. I had the girl witch and pumpkin (prima Julie Nutting) left over from cards I was making and decided to use them for the journal page. I then stamped the "Witching hour" and "Life is a witch and then you fly" Both from Viva Las VegaStamps! on scraps of the gray paper as the background. When the page was done I used Mircal tape to attach it to the journal.

Be sure to go to the Anything but a card challenge blog to check out what our DT is doing and play along!

I'm also going to enter this in the Viva Las VegaStamps! October monthly challenge.